


The Moonlight Over the Pond

by shiro_yuu



Series: Under The Wings Of Time Our Love Grows [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical creatures, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst, Fluff, M/M, alternate universe - gods and goddess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 15:14:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8922031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiro_yuu/pseuds/shiro_yuu
Summary: It's Bokuto's first solo job and he finds himself being surrounded by the magical air of the house in the woods.A misterious fish, a cat, the most beautiful man  Bokuto had ever seen and the warmest couple in the wolrd.Something is happening in the house in the woods and Bokuto want to sink into that water.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be Akaashi's bday fic but as you can see it got way out of control

Bokuto Koutaro is a nice guy. He is always on time to his work (the fact that he lives there doesn’t count), he helps his neighbor with his dog, and he even teach his aunt’s stepson how to swim. He is a nice, responsible guy. So there’s no reason to his father to be lecturing him about how to behave while doing his work.

“And please, refrain your mouth!”, Mr. Bokuto says, his stern expression deepening the frown between his brows.

“Dad, I know how to do my work. Relax, everything will be alright.”, Bokuto says as he finish packing-up the things he’ll need in the back of his pickup truck.

“It’s an important client, Koutaro.”, Mr. Bokuto sighs heavily, passing his hand through his brown-turning-to-white hair.

“I know, dad. It’s important for me too. Please, just let me work.”, Bokuto begs, getting into the car. He closes the door and his father leans onto it.

“I know you can do your work, I’m just worried because it’s your first time working on your own.”, Mr. Bokuto explains and Bokuto smiles brightly at him.

“I’m going to be awesome, you will see.”, Bokuto chirps, and Mr. Bokuto has no option besides nod and step back so Bokuto could get out of the garage.

The Bokuto family runs a not-too-small business; they build and take care of fish ponds. Bokuto is actually the fifth generation of his family that works with it and he’s going to his first solo work. It’s not like he isn’t nervous, because he is, but there’s also a huge excitement about being flying solo for the first time and Bokuto rejoices on it singing old pop songs loud enough to be heard outside his car.

The trip to his client’s house takes more time than Bokuto had imagined, he drives out of the city in the direction of the mountains, getting more and more into the woods. It’s beautiful, but also makes he feel a little bit uneasy, since Bokuto is used to the constant buzz of the city. Almost two and a half hour later, he finally arrives at the house, pulling the car slowly by the intercom in front of the huge dark wooden gate. _That’s why his father was so worried_ , Bokuto thoughts as he press the button on the intercom, _because this clients must be rich as fuck_.

“ _Yes?_ ”, the voice on the intercom asks, quiet and a little tired.

“Oh, hi! I’m Bokuto Koutaro from ‘ _Bokuto’s Pond_ ’! Mr. Kuroo called us about a koi pond.”, Bokuto says, keeping his voice as professional as possible.

“ _Sure._ ”, the voice answers, and Bokuto can her a small noise as the engine of the gate starts working and the heavy wood start moving to the side.

Bokuto drives into the property, following the driveway slowly and carefully. He can see a lot of plants and trees, as if they hadn’t touched the nature inside the property more than enough to build the house. House that Bokuto can see after a few minutes, a big and modern version of a traditional Japanese house, the walls in dark red and a floor made of black slate. The big wooden door matches the wooden slats that compose the roof. It’s a beautiful house.

Bokuto parks his pickup truck near the house, getting out of it and walking towards the house. There’s a small kid in the top of the small stair that leads to the door, dressed in a red kimono, his blond hair coming to his chest and the dark roots show that it has a long time since the last time the kid had bleached his tresses.

“Hey, kiddo!”, Bokuto grins at the kid, waving his hand, “Where’s your father?”

The kid looks at Bokuto, his amber eyes holding a serious gaze and Bokuto feels as if he’s being measured by the kid. The kid blinks slowly, lifting his gaze to Bokuto’s warm dark eyes.

“You’re here for take care of our pond, right? My husband talked about it before leaving.”, the kid answers instead, smiling briefly before turning his back to Bokuto and opening the door, “Come inside, let’s talk.”

“Your husb- oh shit.”, Bokuto widens his eyes, a heavy blush creeping up to his cheeks, “You’re Mr. Kuroo’s husband, Mr. Kozume! I’m so sorry!”

Bokuto can’t believe the gaffe he had committed, taking his client as a little kid. His father will complain so much about it when he gets to know. Bokuto can only pray that his stumble don’t hind his chances of taking the job, honestly.

“It’s ok. I know I look younger than I truly am.”, Mr. Kozume says, walking through the small fake hall created by a bamboo screen to the living room.

The living room, dining room and kitchen are all in the same wide and open space, the black slate floor continuing inside the house. The style is a mix of old and new decorations, a modern design with a hint of old things. The wall opposite the door is all made of glass, giving a full view of the backyard and the huge pond. Bokuto can’t stop the thought about how rich people don’t fear serial killers. Or maybe they just never watched horror movies.

“Do you want some tea?”, Mr. Kozume asks while walking to the kitchen area.

“Yes, thank you”, Bokuto hates tea - he’s a coffee person - but he needs to heal his image with Mr. Kozume, so he’ll just accept his fate and drink the damn thing.

Mr. Kozume starts to make the tea, moving around the kitchen gracefully after he had settled Bokuto in one of the stools by the kitchen counter. Bokuto watches him in middle amazement, being a clumsy person; he can’t help but notice Mr. Kozume’s grace while making the tea.

“Tetsurou, my husband, is travelling because of work. But he gave me instructions on what to say to you.”, Mr. Kozume says, placing the cup of hot tea down in front of Bokuto.  
Bokuto nods, taking a small sip of the tea, it’s not bad but he doesn’t like it. He drinks anyways, waiting for Mr. Kozume to continue.

“As much as Tetsurou loves his fishes, he can’t take care of the pond as he would like. And I’m pretty much useless to the matter, besides I have my own work to do.”, Mr. Kozume explains calmly while mindlessly cleaning the inox counter.

“That’s why I’m here! I’ll take good care of your pond and fishes.”, Bokuto grins, because he truly loves what he does.

Mr. Kozume scans his face slowly before nodding, “That will be good. Tetsurou will have one less thing to worry when he finally gets back to Japan.”

“I’ll keep the pond on point to Mr. Kuroo.”, Bokuto promises, his smile never faltering. 

“Good.”, Mr. Kozume nods, “Have you finished your tea? I can show you the pond.”

“Yeah, yeah!”, Bokuto nods, chugging the half of the cup of tea before getting up from the stall, “Let’s go see the babies!”

“Tetsurou said it’s in need of being properly thawed so the fishes can get back to their lives now that the winter is over.”, Mr. Kozume comments, opening one of the parts of the glass wall and walking to the balcony outside.

“There’s nothing to worry, I can do it today so the fishes can get back to their eating habits.”, Bokuto says while following the small blond man.

They stop by the balcony and Bokuto can have a full vision of the pond, and it’s huge. Bokuto had never seen a prettier pond in his life. It’s beautiful, honestly, and Bokuto can’t help but gap at the sight. 

“Wow.”, Bokuto whistles, looking from the rocks to the small waterfalls and holy shit he would love to live there.

“Tetsurou loves his fishes.”, Mr. Kozume says as he walks towards the pond, “It reminds him home.”

Bokuto follows Mr. Kozume towards the pond, looking at the variety of koi fishes that swims quietly in the clear water. The pond is decorated with plants and stones, with caves for the fishes and small waterfalls, there’s also fake currents that helps to renovate the oxygen in the water. But Bokuto can see little problems where he will need to work; it’s a well cared pond but the fact that Mr. Kuroo is overseas is showing here and there.

“Holy shit.”, Bokuto breathes out when he sees a huge shadow crossing the length of the pond.

“Oh, you found Keiji.”, Mr. Kozume says and Bokuto can hear the fondness in his voice, “He’s a special fish, Tetsurou loves him a lot. He created this pond just to make Keiji happy.”

“He’s beautiful.”, Bokuto says, watching the huge black koi fish with a white spot on the top of his head swimming slowly. “Special fish, ok”, Bokuto nods, imagining that the fish is probably really special since it has a name.

“Be patient with him… He can be difficult sometimes.”, Mr. Kozume says and as if on the cue, Keiji disappears in one of the caves.

“I’ll make sure to keep him comfortable.”, Bokuto assures him, noting mentally that he needs to be extra gently with the black fish; not that he isn’t gentle with the fishes normally, but by the way Mr. Kozume looked at the black koi, he can see how truly special the fish is.

“Thank you, I appreciate.”, Mr. Kozume says, and he walks pass the pond to a warehouse; Bokuto can see the river running a few meters from them. “I’ll show you where Tetsurou storages the things for the pond.”

Bokuto nods, following Mr. Kozume. He looks around as Kenma searches for the keys on his kimono. “It’s a big property..”, Bokuto comments airily.

“It is.”, Mr. Kozume agrees, “It goes all up the mountains until the other side.”, he points out.

“Wow, that’s a lot o land.”, Bokuto says, following Mr. Kozume to inside the warehouse.

“Tetsurou likes space. I’m probably the only small thing he loves.”, Mr. Kozume says while walking towards a wardrobe. “Here you will find everything he normally uses. You can make a list of everything you need and I’ll buy it for the next time.”

“I brought some tools too, they’re on my truck.”, Bokuto says, looking to the inside of the wardrobe, taking mental notes of what they already had and what they’ll need.

“Well, I think this is all I have to show you. Do you need something else?”, Mr. Kozume asks in a soft tone, turning around to look at Bokuto.

“No, I’m good. I’ll bring my tools and meet the fishes so I can start working.”, Bokuto grins and Mr. Kozume nods with the tiniest smile in the world (but Bokuto considers the smile a victory after he had called the man that is probably older than him a kid).

“So I’ll leave you to work. I’ll be on my office working; you can call me if you need something, alright? Feel free to move around.”, Mr. Kozume says and as Bokuto nods, he walks out of the warehouse and back into the house.

Bokuto inspects the wardrobe a little closer now that he’s alone and ready to work, grabbing what he’ll need and putting outside the warehouse. Mr. Kuroo has a good amount of tools to take care of the pond and Bokuto is curious if he started to work overseas recently and that’s why he is in need of a caretaker for the pond.

Bokuto walks back to his truck to pick the rest of the things he’ll need for today before walking to the pond. He starts the process of un-winterize the pond, carefully to not break the ice that is still on part of the pond so he’ll not disturb the fishes. After rolling his pants up to his knees and putting on his boots, Bokuto gets into the freezing cold water to catch the leafs; he could use the net to grab them, but he don’t want to risk to blurry the water with the leafs and with that bother the fishes, so it’s easier to him to just do it by hand.

It takes him a long time to clean up the huge pond, but in the meantime he gets to know the fishes and the pond. Keiji, the special black fish, is pretty antisocial and doesn’t get near Bokuto in any ways, hiding in the caves and staying as far as possible. Bokuto doesn’t mind that much, but he needs to be sure that the fish will eat. So when the temperature of the water raises enough for him to feed the fishes, he tries to gently scope Keiji out of his cave so he’ll eat with the others, but the fish just gets even more into the cave. Sighing in defeat, Bokuto gets out of the pond to pick up the food that he had let outside of the warehouse. When he gets back to the pond with the food, he finally sees Keiji swimming around, almost as if gathering the other fishes to one side of the pond.

“Well, thank you, sir.”, Bokuto says politely to the fish, that gives his back to him and swims away, making Bokuto huffs. “Not cool, Keiji, not cool.”

He feeds the fishes and more than one time tries to catch the attention of the black koi, only to be completely ignored by the fish. Bokuto swears he never had found a fish with more personality than Keiji. It’s only when the feed time is almost in the end that Keiji finally approaches Bokuto, gently swinging between all the other colorful fishes and eating the food. Bokuto grins at him, throwing a bit more of food in his direction.

“There you go, big boy. You need to eat to keep being huge and beautiful.”, Bokuto says, closing the lid of the food container and walking back to the warehouse to put it onto its place.

When Bokuto gets back into the water to take care of the plants, Keiji swims around his ankles, slowly passing between his legs and Bokuto beams at the fact that apparently he has finally conquered the fish sympathy. Bokuto resumes his job, taking care of the plants the better he can in this first day of work, but he knows the plants will need more than one month to be back to life.

The sun is already setting behind the top of the trees when Bokuto finishes gathering his things on his truck. He gives a final goodbye to the fishes, promising being back to keep taking care of their home soon and walking to inside the house.

“Mr. Kozume?”, Bokuto calls, walking to the beginning of one of the halls.

It takes a few minutes before Mr. Kozume finally appearing, but behind Bokuto, coming from one of the halls in the other side of the house.

“Yes?”, Mr. Kozume asks quietly and Bokuto grins.

“I’ve finished for today. I un-winterized the pond and fed the fishes. I also started to take care of the plants, but they will need at least a month to be back to normal.”, Bokuto says, intertwining his fingers behind his back and looking to his client.

“Oh, already?”, Mr. Kozume asks surprised, looking to the pond and apparently just now realizing how late already is. “I’ve let you alone the whole afternoon, I’m sorry. I lose the track of time when I’m working.”

“It’s not a problem at all!”, Bokuto grins, almost glowing. “The fishes are an awesome company. Keiji even decided to swim near me for some time!”

“He did?”, Mr. Kozume asks surprised. He looks at the pond, arching one of his eyebrows in a questioning look. “That’s new.”

“I think he decided to bear with me so I would stop complaining on his ears.”, Bokuto laughs, scratching the back of his neck.

Mr. Kozume expression falls into a gentler one, “Maybe he’s feeling lonely. I’m not having much free time to spend with him and Tetsurou is never home.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep him company!”, Bokuto assures, giving Mr. Kozume a thumbs up.

“Thank you, Bokuto.”, Mr. Kozume says and Bokuto can feel the sincerity in his voice. Keiji must be a really important fish for Mr. Kozume and his husband.

“Well, I’ll be going now. I’ll be back in the end of the week so I can finish cleaning the pond, ok?”, Bokuto says and Mr. Kozume starts to lead him towards his car.

“Yes, I’ll be waiting for you. I don’t know if Tetsurou will be back already, his schedule is a bit messy. But I’m sure you’ll meet him soon.”, Mr. Kozume says and Bokuto nods, opening the car door.

“I’m looking forwards meeting Mr. Kuroo. Someone that had made such an awesome pond is surely great!”, Bokuto grins again, getting into the car, but not missing the small smile on Mr. Kozume’s lips.

“He sure is. See you in the end of the week, Bokuto. Be careful while driving back, it’s already dark.”, Mr. Kozume says, walking back to the entrance of the house.

Bokuto nods, waving a farewell and pulling back his car, maneuvering the car and driving towards the gate. The gate is already open when he reaches it, and he watches by his rearview mirror as the wooden gate slowly slides until it’s closed again after he passes it. Mr. Kozume is right, it’s pretty dark outside the property and Bokuto carefully drives through the forest until he’s in the highway again. 

He gets to the company almost at the closing hour, had stopped by a fast food restaurant so he could eat, and walks towards his father’s office to talk about the day. The conversation is long, Bokuto explaining the pond and what will be needed to keep taking care of the fishes, he also talks about Keiji and how Mr. Kozume and Mr. Kuroo seems to have a special love for the fish (his father talks for thirty minutes about how he needs to be careful with Keiji because fish owners get really attached to some fishes and how he can’t lose this job being clumsy around the black fish). 

After the talk, Bokuto resumes on walking to his house in the back of the company to take a shower and watch something before finally going to sleep. He ends up staying a bit with his mother, helping her to take care of his sister’s aquarium because now that Karin is on college, someone needs to take care of the fishes (and by someone they mean Bokuto, because it’s always him). He falls asleep in the middle of the movie he is seeing, not really used to working all by himself, so the exhaustion ends up winning over him.  
Bokuto dreams about a moon over a lake and a black fish swimming in circles under the moonlight.

-

When Bokuto is back at the house in the woods in the end of the week, he’s greeted by Mr. Kozume again. They chat a little about the week events and Bokuto gets to know a little bit more about his clients. Mr. Kozume runs a video game company, he works from home most part of the time, but he has a office in the city. Mr. Kuroo is a lawyer, but most part of his clients are rich people from the Middle East and that’s why he’s overseas, working on a case in Egypt. They’ve being married for a long time and the black koi, Keiji, was Mr. Kozume’s wedding gift for Mr. Kuroo since Mr. Kuroo had given him the pond as a engagement gift.

Bokuto goes back to work in the pond as Mr. Kozume retreats to his office to work, greeting the fishes as he passes by and towards the warehouse to pick up the tools. Once he’s back in the water, he starts to take care of the plants, wanting to give the pond his life again now that he knows how important the pond is to both of his clients. Bokuto likes this kind of jobs, when the pond and the fishes are more than a simple decoration to the house. He sees a dark shadow coming towards him, the white stain glinting under the water and catching Bokuto’s attention.

“Hey, Keiji. How are you today?”, Bokuto asks fondly, passing his fingers trough the fish’s dorse.

The fish swims around him a few times, not too close but close enough so Bokuto can few the small waves in the water. He smile, looking the fish swims around, and he still can’t quite understand how beautiful the fish is, so black that it seems that the sun doesn’t reflect on his scales, except on the white patch on top of Keiji’s head that glints like a full moon every time the sun hits is directly.

“I think I dreamed about you… You were swimming under the moon, it was a really beautiful scene.”, Bokuto keeps talking to the fish, cleaning a few plants that shouldn’t be creeping on the rocks. “It makes me curious to see you under the moonlight… Maybe you glow?”

Bokuto laughs at the thought, because it’s impossible to the black koi to glow, but it would be an awesome scene. Bokuto feels Keiji brushing against his boots and stops what he’s doing to caresses the fish slowly; he had heard about fishes that like to be caressed before, but he had never found one. So he caresses the fish for a while, indulging with his playful behavior because Mr. Kozume said that Keiji must be feeling lonely since he and Mr. Kuroo can’t be with the fish all the time. 

This time, when Bokuto feeds the fishes, Keiji is there to eat since the beginning, and he keep making company to Bokuto while he ‘s walking around the lake to do his work. It’s weirdly comfortable to have the black fish, in all his 86 centimeters, following him around the pond as a small dog. Bokuto finds himself talking often with the fish, telling him silly things about his life and work, as if the is talking to a friend that he hadn’t seen in a while. 

When Bokuto finally packs up everything to go away in the end of the day, he can’t help but feel weird, as if he is being separated by someone important. He knows it’s ridiculous that he is getting attached to a fish in this level, but Keiji is a different fish, and he can understand how Mr. Kozume and Mr. Kuroo are so fond of the black koi.

This night again, Bokuto dreams about a black fish swimming under the moonlight, but the fish turns into a man that keeps swimming fluidly as if he belongs to the water. Bokuto wakes up before he can see the man’s face.

-

Bokuto’s weekend pass by him in a blink. He goes out with his friends; they go to the movies and play volleyball. He talks about his solo job, everyone wanting to know how he hadn’t fucked up yet. Bokuto also tells them about Keiji, the black koi fish with a white patch on top of his head. He talks about Keiji’s story and his behavior, and when Konoha, Komi and Sarukui don’t believe him that the fish behaves like a little dog, he spends a good two hours showing them videos of fishes being affectionate. They even read a few articles talking about that. They also try to find fishes that look like Keiji; but aside the normal black and white koi fish and the all black koi fish, Bokuto can’t find any koi that had a pattern slightly similar to Keiji’s. He hopes that someday he can ask to Mr. Kuroo where he found such a special and rare fish. 

Bokuto dreams about the fish in the lake again.

-

When the new week begins, Bokuto finds himself somehow anxious to work on Mr. Kozume and Mr. Kuroo ‘s pond again. He feels the need of being there, with the fishes, taking care of their environment, and of course talking to Keiji. He had been on the place only two times and is already attached to the fishes. Ok, not all of them, but to one in particular. Maybe because it’s his first solo job, but he is getting emotionally attached.

Mr. Kozume isn’t waiting for him when Bokuto parks by the entrance, so he makes his way towards the door, opening and entering to call the smallest man.

“Hey, Mr. K?!”, Bokuto calls, walking past the bamboo screen to see the living room. There’s someone there, but definitively it’s not Mr. Kozume.

The man sitting on the cushion by the low table in the middle of the room, sipping calmly from a mug that Bokuto knows is used to green tea, have dark curly hair and extremely fair skin. He’s wearing a dark-almost-black green kimono and when he turns his face to look at Bokuto, his green eyes holds Bokuto where he is. The man is beautiful.

“Holy shit, you’re not Mr. K.”, Bokuto breathes out, holding into the man’s gaze as if enchanted by him.

“I’m afraid I’m not.”, The man smiles, gentle and slightly raspy voice. He gets up and walks towards Bokuto, his moves fluid like the currents of a river. “I’m Akaashi; you must be Bokuto, the guy that take care of Tetsurou’s pond.”, as Bokuto nods at the information, Akaashi continues, “Kenma is on a meeting, he’ll be back soon.”

“Oh. Ok. Hi. Nice to meet you, Akaashi.”, Bokuto smiles, blinking a few times as if to break whatever spell he has being into, “So I’ll go to take care of the pond.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Bokuto.”, Akaashi smiles and Bokuto sigh quietly, not sure how to act around someone so attractive. “Of course, I’ll not bother you”

Bokuto nods, walking towards the backyard, his eyes still on the unfairly beautiful figure that looks at him curiously. Bokuto sighs as he reaches the warehouse, shaking his head a few times to get into his tracks again. He’s here to work, not to get lost because of someone, no matter how pretty and charming this someone is.

When Bokuto is back to the pond, Akaashi had moved the small table to the outside and now is drinking his tea while watching Bokuto. Bokuto takes a deep breath to keep himself in control of his own emotions, starting to work. He still needs to give the plants a special treatment, the winter in this part of the country is harsh and as much as water plants can take the cold just fine, they also need to be well cared when the season changes.

Bokuto’s already working for twenty minutes when he notices that his usual companion, the huge black fish that he surely should have missed before, isn’t around him. He looks around, frowning slightly because he can’t find Keiji anywhere.

“Keiji?”, Bokuto calls, walking to the other side of the pond, searching for the fish. “Keiji, where are you?”

“He’s probably into one of the caves….”, Akaashi says, startling Bokuto.

“Probably, yeah.”, Bokuto agrees, turning around to see Akaashi standing on the verge of the lake, his arms crossed and his hands tucked on the opposite sleeve of his kimono. “But I was hoping to see him today.”

“Maybe he’s tired. Tetsurou says that Keiji sometimes needs some space.”, Akaashi says, crouching near the pond and looking to the water.

“I hope he’s fine.”, Bokuto says, honestly worried about the fish. He looks at Akaashi, and god how can a human being be so pretty?!

“I’m sure he is.”, Akaashi says, turning his face to Bokuto and smilling kindly. “Do you need help?”

“You want to help me?”, Bokuto laughs and Akaashi nods, “Well, you can help me to feed the fishes if you want.”

“I would love to.”, Akaashi nods and Bokuto feels his heart jumping in his ribcage. 

Bokuto resumes working again; taking out some leafs that had fallen into the water in the night before. Akaashi’s presence right there isn’t uncomfortable as Bokuto thought it would be, if not it’s actually pretty comforting.

“How old are you, Bokuto?”, Akaashi asks after a few minutes of silence, startling Bokuto again.

“I’m twenty-two! And you?”, Bokuto asks, not turning to face Akaashi because he’s busy dealing with the moss.

“I’m… Older.”, Akaashi says with a breathy laugh and Bokuto looks at him from over his shoulder, inquiring. “Way older.”

“That’s not possible, you look like twenty or something.”, Bokuto says and Akaashi laughs again, his laugh sounding like music on Bokuto’s ears.

“I’m a bit older than that.”, Akaashi admits, getting up and walking around the pond so he can get near Bokuto, and he crouches in front of him, touching the moss with his finger slowly.

Bokuto grabs Akaashi’s hand carefully, cleaning his finger with his other hand.

“You’ll get dirty.”, Bokuto says softly when Akaashi raises an inquiring look at him.

“It’s just moss…”, Akaashi says with a tender smile and Bokuto needs to use all his strength to not blush. But Akaashi widens his eyes, “Oh, I’m disturbing your work. I’m sorry.”

Before Bokuto could answer, Akaashi gets up and walks back to the balcony, sitting down on his cushion to watch Bokuto work. Bokuto sighs and once again resume on working, trying to not let the constant gaze on his back to bother him. How can someone be so suave and intense at the same time?

When Bokuto finishes what he’s doing and is about to feed the fishes, he turns around to look at Akaashi.

“I’ll feed the fishes now, do you want to help me?”, Bokuto offers in a soft tone and Akaashi beams at him (and this time Bokuto can’t fight the blush).

Akaashi gets up from where he had been sitting and Bokuto walks to the warehouse to grab the food. Bokuto walks to where Akaashi is, opening the lid of the food bowl. He shows Akaashi how to feed the fishes, both of them crouching by the pond, sprinkling food on the water and watching the fishes eating. Akaashi’s eyes seem to glow, the reflex of the sun on the water hitting his green eyes and lightening them. They feed the fishes together, talking about nothings under the sound of the splashing water.

Mr. Kozume doesn’t get home and it’s Akaashi who walks Bokuto to his car this time. Bokuto pulls back slowly, almost savoring the sight of the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his life waving him a goodbye. 

It’s only when he’s already on his bed, ready to sleep, that he remembers that Keiji hadn’t eat when they fed the fishes early. Maybe he’s sick; Bokuto will make sure to check on him the next time he goes to work at the pond.

-

Bokuto dreams with Akaashi for the rest of the weak, the same weird dream where he tries to reach Akaashi on the bottom of the lake, but every time he reach out to touch Akaashi’s extended hand, a gigantic black koi fish swims towards them and swallow Akaashi.

-

The dreams had been hunting Bokuto for days now, so the only thing he wants is to see Akaashi again so the chain around his heart can get loose and maybe he’ll be able to breathe again. So when he parks by the house on Friday, his heart is pounding painfully in his chest, Bokuto needs to take a good breathe before getting out of his car.

“Mr. K? Akaashi?”, Bokuto calls when he opens the door, walking to the living room and finding it empty.

After what seemed hour, Mr. Kozume appears in one of the halls, walking towards Bokuto. “Good afternoon, Bokuto.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. K!”, Bokuto grins, but looking around, hoping that Akaashi would pop up from one of the halls.

“Akaashi is working.”, Mr. Kozume says softly and Bokuto blushes.

“Oh? Ah. Right. I’ll-Ok, I’m going to- I’m going to work.”, Bokuto babbles, all flushed, before lowering his head and walking towards the pond. He thinks he hears Mr. Kozume laughing, but he doesn’t turn around to confirm.

When Bokuto reaches the pond, the first thing he notices is a black cat sitting on the verge of the pond. It’s a big cat; pitch black long fur and golden eyes focused on….

“Dude, get away from this fish!”, Bokuto almost screams, running towards the pond and picking the cat on his arms and away from Keiji. “Dude! With almost thirty fishes in this pond, you’ll go after the one that has a name?!”

The cat is looking at Bokuto, his expression almost bored, not even bothering on trying to get out of Bokuto’s arms where he is lying like a huge furry baby, his belly facing the sky and his paws lazily folded. The only move coming from the cat is his long tail wiggling slowly against Bokuto’s hip.

“Seriously, man, Keiji is a special fish.”, Bokuto says, patting one of the cat front paws with his index finger. “And you…”, Bokuto says as he looks at the fish, “You can’t give attention to stray cats, Keiji. You’re big, but he’ll going to eat you whole.”

Keiji, as if understanding that Bokuto is scowling at him, turn around and slam his powerful tail on the water, splashing the liquid on Bokuto’s shoes. Keiji swims from the other side of the pond, hiding inside a cave again. Bokuto huffs.

“Can you believe this fish?”, Bokuto asks to the cat, walking towards the warehouse.

When he places the cat on the ground, it runs towards the forest and disappears. Bokuto sigh, grabbing his things to start to work, because now he can see the plants responding a bit to what he’s doing, but still he knows that he will need to keep his caring for longer.

Keiji takes a while to approach him this time, as if annoyed by the fact that Bokuto had lectured him. But after a little more than a hour, he feels the black fish swimming by his side. Bokuto smiles, caressing Keiji’s white spot slowly with his fingertips.

“I was worried about you, you know?”, He says to the fish, watching Keiji swimming around him in a slow pace.

Bokuto looks around, and Mr. Kozume is nowhere to be seen, so he sits down at the border of the pond, his feet still inside the water. It’s not like he’s hindering his work schedule, anyways, so he can take a five minutes break.

“I’ve been dreaming with you, you know?”, Bokuto asks to the fish, watching him swimming slowly in a big circle. “In the beginning it was only you, swimming around, but then you turned into a man. I’ve never saw your face, though. But this past week I’ve been dreaming with you and Akaashi, you know Akaashi, right?”

He knows, consciously, that the fish can’t reply or understand him. But talking with him makes Bokuto feels lighter somehow. 

“I’m trying to reach Akaashi in the bottom of the lake… And he’s really far away. My air is almost gone when I’m finally close enough.”, Bokuto keeps talking, still looking at the fish and his slow swimming pattern. “But when I try to hold his hand, you swallow him…. It’s quick and I can’t do anything to stop you from swallowing him… In a moment he’s there, but in the next second neither you nor him are nowhere to be seeing. And then I wake up.”

Bokuto falls into silence when he finishes telling the fish his dream, his eyes still caught by Keiji’s swimming. He feels like drowning, but he doesn’t need air. Actually, Bokuto doesn’t even know if he’s still breathing. He can’t hear anything, the white noises from the forest being muffles as if he’s underwater. The only thing that Bokuto can focuses is the white spot on the top of Keiji’s head, slowly completing laps under the translucent barrier of water that separates his world from Bokuto’s. It reminds him the moon.

A loud meow startles Bokuto and he almost falls into the water. Looking around with wide eyes, it takes a while until he can find the black furry cat sitting by his side. The cat his staring at him with intense gold eyes, his long tail wiggling slowly in the air.

“Oh, hey, little dude!”, Bokuto grins, caressing the top of the cat’s head and watching the feline closing his eyes at the act. “Thank you for waking me up, I need to get back to work.”

When Bokuto looks to the pond again, Keiji is not there anymore. Bokuto sighs, patting the cat head one last time before getting back to work, because he needs to keep the pond pretty since he doesn’t know when Mr. Kuroo will appear, so he can’t relax.

Bokuto talks a bit with Mr. Kozume after he finishes for the day, Mr. Kozume explaining that Akaashi is Mr. Kuroo’s cousin that arrived in the weekend and he’s in the town for working. Monday is his day off, that’s why Bokuto had met him. He’ll not be home until very late at night, but Bokuto won’t wait for him anyways, he’s not close to Akaashi or Mr. Kozume in any ways that aren’t related to his work, so there’s no reason for even considers waiting. So he says goodbye to Mr. Kozume and goes back to his house, again stopping by some fast-food so he can eat because he knows his mother wouldn’t had made something for diner.

That night Bokuto can’t bring himself to sleep, so he just stays on his bed, watching the full moon on the sky from his window until the dark sky fades into an orange-ish one. And only then Bokuto falls asleep.

-

Bokuto can’t sleep well the whole weekend, because no matter how tire he is during the day, once the moon is up in the sky, he’ll not be able to close his eyes to rest until the sun is rising again. He needs to take a grip of his sleeping patterns, because he can’t work if he’s sleeping all day. It’s a hell of a weekend, if Bokuto needs to be honest, and he isn’t very fond of the prospect of the entering week if he can’t put his sleep back on track.

He doesn’t see Akaashi on Monday, but Bokuto is mostly okay with that, not wanting to his somewhat crush to see him looking like a pile of warm shit. He’s feeling awful, having only slept for one and a half hour before his father had woke up him to work. Maybe he should buy some medicine to help him to sleep.

Monday come and goes without anything special happening, his job at the house in the wood’s pond being made without problem, with Mr. Kozume locked on his office working on his game and Bokuto working alone on the backyard. He thought about how good it must be to be so rich that you can actually let someone walk around your property without being supervised. Not that Bokuto would steal something, of course, but still he thinks it’s weird that Mr. Kozume trusts him like that. It’s good, though, to know that his client takes his professionalism seriously.

But like the Monday, the rest of the week passes without surprise. Bokuto helps his father in some others minor jobs, like cleaning a pond in a hotel, going to buy fish for another client’s new pond, things like that that he is used to do but are getting hard as Bokuto’s sleep schedule gets awful day by day.

When Friday comes and Bokuto finds himself again inside the koi pond in the house in the woods, with coldish water until his knees and his hands full of moss, he needs to take a sit again. He sits by the border of the pond, making small haves with his feet, watching Keiji swimming through them.

“I think I’m not going to be able to keep coming for longer…”, Bokuto says to the black cat that had become his company every time he’s working on the pond (he doesn’t know if the cat is from the property or just stray, but it’s good to have company for when Keiji gets pissed at him and hide in one of the caves), “I’m not being able to sleep right lately. If this keeps going, I’ll need to stop and hand the job for someone else.”

The cat meows at him, his golden eyes focused on Bokuto’s face as if he’s trying to say something. Bokuto grins tiredly at him, patting his head and scratching behind his ear, watching the cat keen a bit and lay his furry head onto the contact.

“I know, I know.”, Bokuto says, as if he was understanding what the cat was trying to say moments before, “But I can’t keep coming and working half-asleep. It’ll be dangerous for the fishes… And for me. I’ll end up drowning in this pond and I don’t think Keiji will be gentle enough to remove my body.”, he adds, smiling to the fish and wiggling his feet under the water as if to mess with the black koi.

Bokuto had become really fond of the fish – and the cat –, and he’s aware of how weird it is to him, a 22 years old man, to be talking and teasing an animal. But Keiji makes him feel comfortable enough to tease him, and the black cat’s lazy and relaxed behavior around him makes Bokuto treat them as old friends. 

He finishes his work for the day a few hours later, gathering everything and saying goodbye for both the fish and the cat. When he walks to inside the living room, Mr. Kozume is there to give him goodbye too.

“My husband will be back this weekend.”, Mr. Kozume says as he walks towards the door.

“Oh my god.”, Bokuto breathes out, widening his eyes and looking back at the pond, wondering if his job is good enough to Mr. Kuroo’s taste.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure he’ll like your work. Our pond is well cared, Bokuto, you’re really doing a good job there.”, Mr. Kozume gives one of his tiny smiles that Bokuto rarely sees.

“Thank you, Mr. K. It means a lot.”, Bokuto says honestly, walking with Kenma to front yard.

Bokuto says goodbye to Mr. Kozume and pulls back the car, driving back to his house so he could – and he prays the gods he will – try and sleep a little.

-

Bokuto does sleep that night, and all the nights of the weekend, but the dreams are back at full force. 

He doesn’t see Akaashi being swallowed anymore, but now Akaashi is inside a koi pond, illuminated by the full moon. Keiji swims in circle around Akaashi’s feet, but he isn’t alone. There’s another koi fish, silvery-white with a black circle stain on the top of its head. The new koi fish is the perfect opposite from Keiji and the two fishes hunt each other around Akaashi’s feet, but never getting near enough.

Akaashi always offers his hands to Bokuto, palms up to the sky, pale skin glowing under the moonlight. Every time Bokuto tries to hold Akaashi’s hand, he wake up, covered in sweat and panting hard as if he was holding his breath under water for a long, long time.

-

Bokuto can’t say he’s well-rested on Monday, but at least he isn’t feeling like crap. He can’t believe how obsessed he got over a person he met only once, obsessed enough to keep dreaming about him night after night. It’s embarrassing and Bokuto knows.

The first thing Bokuto sees when he parks by the entrance of the house is an all black car shining under the sun, and he suddenly remembers that Mr. Kuroo is back from his trip and will probably be at home today. Bokuto can’t help but feel nervous, not knowing how his client is and afraid that something on his routine will change now that Mr. Kuroo is back. He kinda got used to be alone with the fish and the cat, because Mr. Kozume trusts him, but he can’t be sure if Mr. Kuroo will be the same. 

Bokuto can only hope, as he opens the door, that Mr. Kozume and Akaashi would have talked good things about him to Mr. Kuroo.

“Bokuto.”, Akaashi’s warm and gentle voice greets Bokuto as he enters the living room and Bokuto blushes faintly. “Good to see you again.”

“Hey, Akaashi!”, Bokuto grins, sinking his hands on his pockets and walking towards the man, “How are you today?”

“I’m great, thank you.”, Akaashi smiles and Bokuto sighs in response. ‘And you? You’re looking a little down.”

“Oh, I’m fine. I’m just not sleeping too well. Nightmares, you know?”, Bokuto says, walking towards the warehouse, completely aware that Akaashi is following him only a half-step behind.

“Oh, this is bad.”, Akaashi says, stopping by the door when Bokuto enters on the warehouse to pick his tools. “You should try some chamomile tea. It’s good for sleeping.”

“I kind of… Hate tea with all my heart.”, Bokuto laughs awkwardly, looking over his shoulder to see Akaashi laughing. “What?”

“Kenma said you drank tea with him.”, Akaashi says, looking amused at Bokuto when Bokuto blushes a deep shade of red.

“I had to! I mistook him with a child, Akaashi!”, Bokuto cries out, pouting when Akaashi only laughs more, “You would drink the damn tea if you had mistaken your client for a child on your first day!”

“Ok, ok. You have a point.”, Akaashi concedes, but his breath was still curled around a laugh.

Bokuto huffs at him, a small pout still on his lips. They walk back to the pond, Bokuto stopping right on his tracks when he sees a tall – very tall – figure wearing a red and black kimono. The person has his back turned on Bokuto’s direction, so he can only see the man’s broad shoulders and messy black hair.

“Tetsurou.”, Akaashi calls gently and the person turns around, intense amber-almost-gold eyes finding them and softening when landing on Akaashi’s figure.

Bokuto is frozen in place, staring at the person that he now knows is Mr. Kuroo. Mr. Kuroo has a really pretty face, sharp chin and manly features; his eyes have dark long lashes that make it seems as if he’s wearing makeup. Mr. Kuroo looks like a cat.

“You’re awake.”, Mr. Kuroo says, his voice deep. He turns his eyes to Bokuto, grinning in a way that makes Bokuto remembers the cat on that fairy tale that he can’t remember the name, the one with a rabbit and a hatter. “You must be Bokuto, the kid that is taking care of my babies.”

“Yes, sir!”, Bokuto says, a little startled, looking to his hands and trying to find a way to offer one of them to Mr. Kuroo to shake, but he’s with his hand full. So Bokuto ends up bowing instead. “Nice to meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you too.”, Mr. Kuroo nods, making a small movement with his head. “Akaashi, Kenma is baking apple pies now. Why don’t you go there and help him?”

“Alright.”, Akaashi nods, smiling to Bokuto as if this would calm his nerves. He walks towards the house, patting Mr. Kuroo’s shoulder and stopping just for enough time so Mr. Kuroo could kiss his hair.

“Do you need some help with the things?”, Mr. Kuroo asks after Akaashi had entered the house, walking towards Bokuto.

“No, sir, I can handle. Don’t worry.”, Bokuto grins, but handing some tools at Mr. Kuroo when he offers his hand anyways.

“There’s no need to call me ‘sir’. Just ‘Tetsurou’ is fine.”, Mr. Kuroo says as they walk towards the pond.

Bokuto shakes his head, “My father would kill me if I ever called a client by his name.”, he says and he isn’t lying. Mr. Bokuto has a lot of rules, and treating his clients politely is on the top 5.

“Oh, I see.”, Mr. Kuroo nods, disposing the tools by the pond and looking to the clean water. “You sure did a great job cleaning.”

“But I can call you Mr. T, if you don’t mind.”, Bokuto says, but his eyes travel to the pond and he analyzes his job, “I still need to take care of some of the moss inside the caves and the plants will need a little more time to be 100% fine.”

“I’m ok with being called Mr. T”, Mr. Kuroo nods and Bokuto beams at him. “The winter is always harsh on them. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to take care of them this spring. I’m glad I called your company.”

“They’re doing fine, they’re pretty strong. They need time, but I believe they will get back at full force soon.”, Bokuto says, looking around and trying to find the black koi. “I can’t see Keiji…”

“I hope so.”, Mr. Kuroo nods, looking around the pond before looking at the house, “He’s probably hiding.”, he says before looking at Bokuto with a warm expression, “He usually gets mad at me when I travel so he hides for the first few days.”

“He sure has a strong personality.”, Bokuto says and Mr. Kuroo chuckles.

“He does. Stronger than it seems.”, Mr. Kuroo says, watching Bokuto putting on his boots. “I’ll leave you to work now. Don’t bother that I’m here, keep doing what you were doing. Kenma trusts you, so I have no reason to be supervising.”

“Thank you, sir!”, Bokuto exclaims, a light blush on his cheeks. 

Mr. Kuroo walks back to inside the house and Bokuto sighs in relieve. Mr. Kuroo seems a really serious person and there’s something about him that Bokuto can’t quite understand, but it feels powerful. Bokuto surely doesn’t want to be on Mr. Kuroo’s wrong side and he’s glad that Mr. Kozume had talked good things about him to his husband.  
Bokuto starts to work on the pond after he had prepared himself to be into the water. He can’t help but feeling lonely since neither the cat nor Keiji are here today. But even without someone to chat, Bokuto keeps doing his work, wanting to prove to the owner of the pond that he really knows how to do a good work. It’s childish of him, but Bokuto wants to impress Mr. Kuroo so if his father comes to ask something (and Bokuto knows he probably will), Mr. Kuroo will only have good things to talk about Bokuto’s work.  
It’s already in the middle of the afternoon when Bokuto sees someone again, when Mr. Kuroo comes to the balcony and calls his name. Bokuto turns around to see the tall man waving at him and gets out of the pond, taking out his boots to put on his sneakers and walking towards the house.

“Yes, sir?”, Bokuto asks, drying his hands on his shirt and looking at Mr. Kuroo curiously.

“We’ll be having tea now, why don’t you come in and eat with us?”, Mr. Kuroo asks in a gentle tone. “There’s a few things I would like to talk with you too.”

“Oh, I-Ok, but I… I’m kinda… Wet?”, Bokuto asks, blushing creeping to his face when Mr. Kuroo guffaws. “Oh my god, this come out really wrong.”, he mutters, face-palming himself.

“It’s ok.”, Mr. Kuroo says, still laughing, “I’ll bring the table to the balcony so you can be as wet as you want.”

“Mr. T!”, Bokuto huffs, all red and flustered.

Mr. Kuroo walks to inside the house again, still laughing and not helping with Bokuto embarrassment. Bokuto watches through the glass as Mr. Kuroo grabs the tea table and put it outside, walking back inside to pick up the red and black cushions and placing them on the wooden floor around the table.

“Babe, do you need help?”, Mr. Kuroo asks for inside the house and Bokuto can see Mr. Kozume shaking his head in denial. Mr. Kuroo nods and then turns to face Bokuto, “You can take a seat, Bokuto. The only person I bite is Kenma.”

Bokuto blushes but nods and sits down by the table, but not on the cushion because he doesn’t want to get it wet (he can feel his pants clinging into his butt where the water from the pond that splashed while he worked). Mr. Kuroo sits in front of him, looking to inside the house just to make sure that the other two don’t need his help before looking back at Bokuto.

“I want you opinion.”, Mr. Kuroo says and Bokuto looks confused at him.

“My opinion, sir?”, Bokuto asks, because he can’t imagine for what Mr. Kuroo would need his opinion since he isn’t somewhere close to him.

“Yes. You’ve been working on the pond for a while now.”, Mr. Kuroo starts, helping Mr. Kozume to place the tray with the small apple pies on the table.”I’m thinking about reform the pond. I have some plans, but I would like your professional opinion.”

Bokuto stares at Mr. Kuroo in disbelief, because it seems like a dream that someone –a really important client – would want his **professional** opinion on something. Bokuto is young and because of that everyone thinks he’s naïve and not suited to be in charge of important decisions like this one. Bokuto blinks a few times, trying to gather his thought so he can stop looking at Mr. Kuroo with his mouth hanging open in shock before he drools on himself.

“I-Wow. Alright. I wasn’t expecting that.”, Bokuto admits, fidgeting in place. 

Mr. Kozume and Akaashi approach them, Mr. Kozume with a tray with a tea set and Akaashi with a black mug on his hands. They sit on the vacant places, Akaashi placing the mug in front of Bokuto and the delicious smell of hot coffee hits him. Bokuto blushes, because Akaashi had remembered that he doesn’t like tea and this makes Bokuto’s heart skip a beat.

“Thank you.”, Bokuto says shyly, before turning to Mr. Kuroo that is serving the tea for Mr. Kozume, Akaashi and himself. “I think a reform would be good, Mr. T, but we would have to reallocate the fishes.”

“You’ll do something with the pond, Tetsurou?”, Akaashi asks, and Bokuto isn’t sure but he thinks he can hear a hint of fear on Akaashi’s voice.

“Not much. I’m thinking about expanding the pond because Keiji is getting really big.”, Mr. Kuroo says softly and Akaashi blushes faintly. “I think he’ll like more space.”

“I think so.”, Akaashi agrees, sipping his tea.

“How much do you plan on expanding it?”, Bokuto asks, turning his head to look at the pond.

“ I don’t know, maybe a few meters. We have all this space without use, I think we can make a prettier pond.”, Mr. Kuroo says thoughtful, “And I have a place to reallocate the fishes, you don’t have to worry.”

“I want a bridge.”, Mr. Kozume talks for the first time, since he had been eating a apple pie until now.

“A bridge, love?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, his voice softening to matches his eyes when he looks at his husband.

“Yes, crossing the pond, that ones that are curve and red.” Mr. Kozume explains, lifting his big amber eyes to Mr. Kuroo and blushing faintly when their gazes met.

“I’ll make you a bridge, then.”, Mr. Kuroo nods and smiles, turning his face to Bokuto. “You think we can do, Bokuto?”

“Sure thing, Mr. T! We’ll give to Keiji a badass pond!”, Bokuto chirps, drinking his coffee all excited because now he’ll be leading a project all by himself.

Their conversation swifts to other topics from this one, Mr. Kuroo telling them about his trip to Egypt and Bokuto can’t help but want to visit the place, because it seems awesome. Mr. Kuroo and Bokuto do the most part of the conversation, Mr. Kozume and Akaashi silently listening to them; Akaashi comes with some comments here and there, but not often. Bokuto enjoys being with them, it’s as if they create a magic bubble around them that is warm and cozy where Bokuto can have fun and talk a lot as if he already knew them from another lives.

When Bokuto drives away from the property in the end of the afternoon after spending the whole day discussing ideas for the pond with Mr. Kuroo with Mr. Kozume playing video game on Mr. Kuroo’s lap and Akaashi by Bokuto’s side, he can’t help but feel as if he’s driving away from something important. It’s weird, but it’s not completely a bad feeling, because he knows he’ll be back since now he has more than just a job cleaning the pond to do in that house.

-

Bokuto should had expected that as soon he drops the news about Mr. Kuroo’s pond project on his father’s desk, the old Mr. Bokuto would swept the project away from his hands. But this time Bokuto fight against him, because there’s something precious on that house that he wants to protect and he’s not willing on letting this project get out of under his wings. So in the end, to finish the discussion, Mr. Bokuto decides to call Mr. Kuroo to talk about the project, kicking Bokuto out of his room so he can talk in private with the client.  
Part of Bokuto is sure that Mr. Kuroo will not let people that he doesn’t know touch his precious pond, but another big part of him is afraid that Mr. Kuroo will be defeated by Mr. Bokuto’s awesome argumentation skills. The conversation between his father and Mr. Kuroo takes more time than Bokuto can bring himself to count, so he just keep walking from left to right and back to left in from of his father’s door, waiting anxious for the answer. He doesn’t want to let this project go.

Mr. Bokuto opens his door, calling Bokuto with a move of his hand and walking back to his desk, sitting on his old and comfy chair and waiting for Bokuto to sit down in one of the blue guest chair. Bokuto fidgets under his father’s pierce gaze, suddenly uncomfortable with being where he is.

“I talked with Mr. Kuroo…”, Mr. Bokuto starts and Bokuto only nods, knowing better than interrupt his father when he’s talking about work, “He didn’t seem to appreciate that I had suggested to give the project for someone more experienced than you. He said that he trusts you and that he’ll not accept anyone else heading this project, since the pond is very special for his marriage and he can’t have someone that isn’t from home taking decisions over his pond.“

Bokuto, honestly to any god, can’t decide how to feel. He’s happy, of course, but he’s also nervous, his heart punching his ribcage. People don’t normally trust him with precious things, since he’s clumsy and young; it’s normally one of his elder brothers that get works like this one. But Mr. Kuroo had said to his father, of all people, that he trusts Bokuto and that he’ll not accept anyone else to take care of this job. Bokuto can’t help but beams, glowing like a small sun, feeling all warm and pride of himself.

“I don’t know what you did, but I suppose it was the right thing. I never had a client talking so highly about any of you.”, Mr. Bokuto says, his eyes gleaming with pride in the middle of his stern expression. “You need to think carefully about this job, Koutaro. It’s your responsibility and it’s your name, ok?”

Bokuto nods, eagerly, biting down his lip before talking, “I’ll make the best pond ever, dad! You’ll see! I’ll make you proud and Mr. Kuroo will not get disappointed for trusting me.”, Bokuto says firmly, is focus lightening up his warm chestnut eyes.

“I’m sure you’ll do good.”, Mr. Bokuto nods. “Now go to sleep, you need to develop this project at least a bit until Friday so you can show Mr. Kuroo something. You can ask my help if you need something and I’ll put the company at your service.”

“Thank you, dad!”, Bokuto chirps, getting up on his feet and flying out the office. He’ll do his best and he’s sure that he can make everyone proud of him.

-

He dreams again that night, but this time is a different dream. 

He’s walking barefoot on a forest, his feet sinking into the humid soil, the dead leafs being smashed between his toes. The smell of the rain is still present; he can feel the wetness on the bark of the tree when he places his hand there to avoid slipping on the fluff soil.

He’s searching for someone.

But he doesn’t know who it is.

He walks through the forest, calling a name that he can’t hear. He feels his heart pounding heavily against his chest, slow but painfully, like punches against his ribcage.

He knows he’s close.

The first sound he hears is the river, first low and quiet like a whisper, but the sound keeps growing as he walks towards the river until the waterfall is howling on his ears and he can’t hear anything else. Not even his own thoughts.

There’s someone by the river.

It’s a woman.

She is wearing a dress, dark, dark green like the bottom of a lake.

Her toes are touching the water on the verge of the river.

He tries to call her, but he can’t, his voice caught in his throat. Caged like an animal. He can’t alert her.

Why should he alert her? 

There’s something dangerous coming. 

He doesn’t know what it is, but he needs to alert her.

He tries to scream her name again – he doesn’t know how he knows her name, but he does – and this time she turns around.

He can’t see her face, only her eyes, green like her dress, but glinting like the sunlight reflected on the surface of a river.

There’s something dangerous coming, he should warn her.

The water is flooding.

It’s already at her knees.

He tries to reach for her, but he’s tied to the ground by strong roots. 

He can’t move.

She opens her mouth, the water by her waist.

“ _La_ ”, she says before the water takes her away.

-

Bokuto wakes up, cold sweat running down his back, his white hair sticking to his face. He can’t breathe right; his chest is heavy and his lungs hurting. The moonlight is hovering over him and he feels sick, cold, weak. 

Bokuto falls back to sleep, his body needing the rest and his mind too sore to complain.

-

The project for Mr. Kuroo’s pond claims Bokuto’s attention all to himself. Mr. Bokuto even cleans the most part of Bokuto’s schedule so he can works on the project. He wants everything to be perfect, so he does a lot of research and draws a lot of ideas. Bokuto is good at drawing landscapes and architectonic structures, so he spend his afternoons drawing views of the new pond so he can show to Mr. Kuroo on Friday.

Bokuto spends the whole Wednesday with Konoha driving from koi farmer to koi farmer searching for news and pretty fishes, taking pictures and cataloging them because he knows that the new pond will need new fishes or it’ll become lifeless. 

When Friday arrives, Bokuto has a small pile of paper filled with his research than he’s buzzing to show to Mr. Kuroo.

Bokuto parks his pickup truck on his usual spot, getting out of it and grabbing the papers. He’s kinda anxious to see Mr. Kuroo’s reaction. It’s Bokuto’s first big job alone and he’s seeking for approval. He walks towards the door, checking the papers while he walks.

“Hey, Bokuto!”, Mr. Kuroo shouts from somewhere.

Bokuto needs to turn around a few times trying to find Mr. Kuroo, until he sees a ladder resting against the red wall. He steps back, looking to the roof and finding Mr. Kuroo sitting there in one of the beams, one of his legs swinging lazily out of the roof.

“Mr. Kuroo, what are you doing on the roof?”, Bokuto asks, genuinely curious.

“Oh, this. There’s a bird nest here and Kenma thinks it’s better to take it down and put somewhere safer.”, Mr. Kuroo explains, looking at Bokuto from where he’s sitting.

“Do you need some help?”, Bokuto asks, walking back to his truck and placing the papers on the hood.

“Sure! Can you go to the ladder so I can pass the nest for you?”, Mr. Kuroo says, getting up on his feet and walking on the verge of the roof.

“Yep. Be careful, Mr. T!”, Bokuto says, but making his way to the ladder and climbing it.

“Don’t worry, cats always fall on their feet.”, Mr. Kuroo gives him a Cheshire cat grin and Bokuto laughs, nodding.

Mr. Kuroo walks towards the ladder, a small nest made of sticks safe on his hands. He crouches on the end of the roof, handing the nest to Bokuto. There’s four small pale blue eggs on the nest and Bokuto carefully gets down of the ladder so he won’t shake and disturb the little eggs. Mr. Kuroo gets back to the ground after Bokuto.

“Do you know what from what kind of bird this eggs are, Mr. T?”, Bokuto asks while following Mr. Kuroo to the trees.

“Lidth’s Jay.”, Mr. Kuroo answers with a smile, “We have a lot of them around the property.”

“Your property is really beautiful, Mr. T”, Bokuto smiles, watching as Mr. Kuroo places the ladder under a tree and climbs on it.

“I like to be in contact with nature, and Kenma doesn’t like the city.”, Mr. Kuroo says, grabbing the nest when Bokuto hands it to him, “So live in the woods was the logical option.”

“It’s a really pretty place.”, Bokuto says, watching as Mr. Kuroo puts the nest securely on a branch before getting down from the ladder.

“Yes, it is.”, Mr. Kuroo agrees with a small smile. “Let’s go inside, I saw that you brought plans for the new pond.”

“Oh, yeah! I’ve draw some ideas and I also have made some research.”, Bokuto says as both of them walk back to the car.

“Great! Let’s talk about it on my office.”, Mr. Kuroo smiles, walking towards the house with Bokuto right behind him.

Mr. Kuroo leads Bokuto to inside the house, walking through one of the long halls until they reach a dark wooden door. Mr. Kuroo opens the door, entering the room and motioning with his hand to Bokuto to get in and close the door, which Bokuto does.

Mr. Kuroo’s office has light grey colored walls and a big mocha maple table with a computer over it and a luxurious stationary set. There are cubic shelves on the walls, old books that Bokuto had never heard about in his life filling the spaces. The black stale floor harmonizes with the comfortable chair and the things over the table. Two black armchairs on the other opposite side of the table shows that Mr. Kuroo sometimes has clients coming to his house. When Mr. Kuroo opens the ceiling-to-floor curtains, Bokuto can see a pretty view of the lake from the glass wall.

“Take a sit, let’s see your projects.”, Mr. Kuroo says, sitting on his chair and putting his stationary set to the side, cleaning some space for Bokuto’s papers.

“I’ve made some sketches about the ideas we had talked that day…”, Bokuto says as he takes a sit in one of the armchairs, showing Mr. Kuroo some of the drawings.

They start to talk about the project, Bokuto showing his drawings and research and Mr. Kuroo saying more of his ideas. They even enter on the internet to search kinds of aquatic plants and others things that they could put on the pond. Bokuto’s excitement skyrockets at every new little thing they decide about the project, Mr. Kuroo’s own excitement matching his easily. Neither of them notices as the sun goes down slowly behind the mountain and the sky starts to shift from light blue to orange and then dark blue.

They just notice how long they had been talking when Mr. Kozume opens the door and puts his head inside the office, “Tetsurou, will you cook or should I order some food?”

Mr. Kuroo looks at the clock on the corner of his table, seeing that is already past seven. ‘I’ll cook, honey, don’t worry. Is Akaashi home yet?”, he asks and Bokuto blushes lightly.

“Yes, he is. I’ll set the table.”, Mr. Kozume says before closing the door.

“Well, we surely got into the project.”, Mr. Kuroo laughs, helping Bokuto to gather the papers.

“I’m sorry for taking your time for so long.”, Bokuto says, getting up and stretching his back until it pops.

“That was not a problem at all. I enjoyed the afternoon.”, Mr. Kuroo smiles and they walk out of the office together, “Would you like to have dinner with us?”

“I enjoyed it too.”, Bokuto grins but he ends up blushing with the invitation, “I don’t know if I should.”

“Of course you should. Akaashi will like to have you around.”, Mr. Kuroo gives him a Cheshire cat grin and a knowing look that makes Bokuto’s face turns into a deep shade of red.

They enter the main area of the house and Bokuto sees for the first time the gardener with his lights on. The pond glows with underwater lights and the lampposts around it cast yellow lights over the grass. There’s a small path lit by blue lights that cross the trees in the direction of the river and Bokuto had never noticed it before.

“Good evening, Bokuto.”, Akaashi smiles gentle at him and Bokuto beams.

“Good evening, Akaashi. Nice to see you today.”, Bokuto says, and he’s honestly happy for being able to see his crush.

“Bokuto will have dinner with us.”, Mr. Kuroo says, patting Bokuto’s shoulder blades almost affectionately.

“I’ll put another plate on the table.”, Mr. Kozume says, walking to the kitchen and opening one of the cabinet doors to grab a plate.

“Thank you, Mr. K.”, Bokuto smiles at him. “Do you need help, Mr. T?, he asks when he sees Mr. Kuroo walking to the kitchen too.

“No, no. It’s everything ok.”, Mr. Kuroo says as opens the fridge. He looks at Akaashi from over his shoulder, “Akaashi, why don’t you show Bokuto the property? Walk with him to the river…I’ll call you when the dinner is ready.”

“It’s a good idea.”, Akaashi agrees, looking at Bokuto and waiting for his confirmation.

“Sure.”, Bokuto agrees with a smile, placing the papers on the couch before he follows Akaashi to the backyard.

Akaashi leads Bokuto through the balcony and across the backyard. They follow the blue lit path and Bokuto can spot more of the mushroom shaped blue lights spread by the trees. The blue glow makes the place seems magical and when Akaashi turns around to look at him, Bokuto swears that Akaashi isn’t human. The sound of the river gets louder as they walk towards it and Bokuto’s breath get caught on his chest.

“Bokuto?”, Akaashi calls when they reach the riverside and Bokuto starts to breathe again.

“I’m sorry, I got distracted by the light.”, Bokuto smiles shyly, walking towards Akaashi.

“We can sit here.”, Akaashi says as he points at an old tree trunk that is laying over the gravels near the forest edge.

“Sure thing”, Bokuto grins and they sit there, side by side.

Bokuto doesn’t know how to start a conversation with Akaashi, and this is a problem. Bokuto isn’t used to not knowing how to act around people, but Akaashi has this almost mystic aura that throws Bokuto off. So they stay in silence for a while, Bokuto watching the coursing river and Akaashi watching the moon that slowly appears from behind a cloud. 

“Hm… How… How was your day?”, Bokuto asks awkwardly, looking at Akaashi by the corner of his eyes.

“Fine, I guess. I haven’t done much today, actually.”, Akaashi says as he looks at Bokuto. “And yours? Kenma said you and Tetsurou spent the whole afternoon locked on his office.”

“Oh, yeah, that. Hm, I’m pretty excited with this project, I guess.”, Bokuto says with a wide grin, looking to the cloudy sky, “It’s my first project alone and Mr. T didn’t let my father assign it for other person. I’m happy… I little scared too, but definitely happy.”

“I’m sure Tetsurou trusts a lot on your abilities, Bokuto.”, Akaashi smiles at him when Bokuto looks back at him and Bokuto can feel himself blushing lightly.

“You can… Call me Koutaro, if you want.”, Bokuto mutters, averting his gaze again.

“Koutaro.”, Akaashi says slowly, as if testing the weight of the name on his tongue. Bokuto can’t help but blush more.

“Yeah. But only if you want to.”, Bokuto smiles shyly, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, Koutaro seems good.”, Akaashi gives him a tiny smile and Bokuto laughs really awkwardly because he doesn’t really know how to react.

“So….”, Bokuto says, drumming his fingers on his knees, “Do you have any hobbies?”

“Hm… I like to swim?”, Akaashi more asks than answers and Bokuto looks confused at him. “I mean, I used to live by the sea, so I was always swimming. But there’s actually a long, long time since the last time I’ve seen the sea.”

“Oh, I see. It’s hard to get to see the sea here in the city.”, Bokuto nods, looking to the river. “I suppose the river isn’t the same thing, right?”

“Hm, the river is ok, I guess. But the salt water gives a different sensation.”, Akaashi says and Bokuto can’t quite understand but nods nonetheless.

“Mr. K said you’re here for work…”, Bokuto starts and Akaashi nods.

“Yeah, but I don’t know how long I’ll be here, actually. Tetsurou said I could stay as long as I want and since my job is doing alright, I’m going to stay here for a while.”, Akaashi smiles faintly.

“That’s good. I like to be around you.”, Bokuto says without thinking, blushing hardly when he notices what he had just said.”I-I mean….”

Akaashi laughs quietly; his hand covering his mouth and Bokuto can see a faint blush on Akaashi’s pale cheeks.

“I like to be around you too, Koutaro.”, Akaashi says with a small smile.

“Akaashi! Bokuto! Dinner is ready!”, Mr. Kuroo yells from the house, and how the hell his voice can be heard from so far away is a mystery.

Akaashi gets up; offering his hand to Bokuto and Bokuto takes it without thinking. They walk back to the house, Akaashi leading the way while Bokuto just follows, lost in the way the blue light hits the soft curl of Akaashi’s black strands. 

They enter the room, the smell of food hitting Bokuto’s nostrils and his stomach reacts loudly, remembering him that the last thing he had eaten was his lunch. Akaashi leads him to the table and Bokuto takes the seat that is designated for him. Akaashi sits on the opposite side of the table, Mr. Kozume sitting beside him and Mr. Kuroo taking the place besides Bokuto. Mr. Kuroo makes the honors to serve everyone’s food and they start to eat.

Once again Bokuto falls into place in that group, never staying out of the conversation and sometimes even leading it. Mr. Kuroo’s food is amazing and Bokuto, being used to fast-foods and takeouts, swears that he had never eaten a better food before. 

They keep talking for a while after they finish eating, even Mr. Kozume joining the conversation this time (but always quiet). When they finally get up from the table, Akaashi calls dibs on washing the dishes and Bokuto joins him to help. All four of them keep chatting while they clean the dishes.

It’s passing ten when Bokuto finally grabs his papers and says goodbye to them, Akaashi walking him to his car and waiting until Bokuto makes the curve and is no longer on sight. Bokuto can’t help but feel a weight on the bottom of his stomach when he drives away from the property.

He falls asleep as soon as he gets to his room.

-

Akaashi is running from him, bare feet splashing water from the seashore and pressing marks on the white sand.

He can feel him laughing more than he can hear.

He runs after Akaashi too.

Until the day turns night and he is not in the beach anymore. 

He’s in the woods and everything is dark, he can’t see anything around him and Akaashi is not there.

A ghostly blue light catch his attention from the corner of his eye and he turns around to see a small mushroom shaped lantern glowing blue in the middle of the forest.

He runs towards the only source of light but as soon as he steps in the small illuminated circle around the lantern, another one lit up a few meters ahead.

He runs again.

And he keep running as the mushrooms keep lightening up, forming a path in the middle of the dark.

He runs out of the wood, finding himself in front of a cliff, the full moon hovering its light over him.

There’s a person on the edge of the cliff, looking down to the sea, the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks suddenly invading Bokuto’s mind.

The person turns around to see him; it’s a tall man, his dark skin glowing under the moonlight.

He screams.

Nothing comes from his mouth, the sea waves too loud.

The man’s green eyes glint under the moonlight, but the darkness of the night don’t allow he to see the man’s face.

He tries to scream again, taking a step toward the man, his hand out to try and catch him.

The man steps back.

And falls.

-

Bokuto wakes up screaming, out of breathe and sweating as if he had been running for a long time. 

He looks around, trying to understand what had happened and at the same time trying to calm himself. It takes a while but Bokuto finally gets calm enough to get up from his bed and walks towards the bathroom to take a shower. The cold water hits his hot skin, making Bokuto hiss. His shower is short, only being enough to him to clean off the sweat and calm his racing heart.

Bokuto goes to the kitchen, quiet to not wake up anyone. He starts making a sandwich, not really hungry but not wanting to get back to sleep neither. Bokuto sits down outside the house on the curb, petting his dog while eating. 

The moon is high in the sky, the night so clean that not even a single cloud makes presence. He can see a few stars, nothing too special because it’s hard to see the stars clearly in the middle of the city. Bokuto wonders how clear the sky must be on the house in the woods, away from all the influences of the city.

Bokuto sighs, saying goodbye to his dog and making his way back to his room, not full wanting to sleep but knowing way too well that he needs to. He’s responsible for a project now and tomorrow he needs to have a meeting with his dad to show him everything that got decided with Mr. Kuroo about the new pond.

Before finally falling asleep, Bokuto remembers that it have a long time since the last time he had seen the black koi fish, somehow Akaashi’s presence eclipsing Keiji’s effect on him. 

He’ll make sure on check up the fish next time.

-

When Bokuto is back at the house in the wood to work, he finds Mr. Kozume waiting for him outside, all dressed with casual clothes and Bokuto needs to refrain himself of commenting how weird it is to see Mr. Kozume without his kimono. Bokuto parks his car, getting out of it and walking towards the door.

“Good afternoon, Mr. K!”, Bokuto greets with a wide grin and Mr. Kozume nods lightly.

“Good afternoon, Bokuto.”, Mr. Kozume looks around before sighing, looking at Bokuto. “I need to go to the city to solve some issues. Is that ok for you to stay alone here?”

“Mr. T and Akaashi aren’t at home?”, Bokuto asks curiously.

“No.”, Mr. Kozume shakes his head, “Akaashi is working and Tetsurou is meeting a client for a tea.”, he then looks up at Bokuto’s face, “Is it a problem to you?”

“Oh-Wha-No, no. It isn’t a problem, sir.”, Bokuto says quickly, smilling again, “It’s just… is that ok for me to be alone on your house?”

“I don’t think that I have something to worry about, have I?”, Mr. Kozume asks softly and Bokuto quickly shakes his head.

“No! No! Of course not!”, Bokuto says in a rush, not wanting to Mr. Kozume to have a wrong impression. “I’ll do my work without a problem, sir. I swear.”

“That’s good.”, Mr. Kozume says with a tiny smile, “I’ll be back before your time to go, don’t worry.”, he says while walking to a black car parked to the side that Bokuto hadn’t noticed before. “You can grab food in the kitchen or anything like that if you want to. See you later.”

“Oh, ok. Ok. See you later, Mr. K!”, Bokuto waves a goodbye while Mr. Kozume is driving away from the house.

Bokuto sighs, looking around, slightly lost because the fact that this family trusts him so much that they’re willing to leave him alone in the house is little overwhelming. Not wanting to let them down, Bokuto enters the house, walking to the backyard so he can starts to work because he needs to value the trust that they’re putting on him.

When Bokuto steps outside the house again, he’s greeted by someone that he hadn’t seen for a while. The furry black cat is waiting for him by the pond, long and fluffy tail curled around his body on the ground. When the cat’s golden eyes meet Bokuto’s, he can’t help but think how much the cat resembles Mr. Kuroo. He wonders if they know about the cat.

“Hey, furry dude. You went missing, I was worried about you.”, Bokuto says, petting the cat’s head before walking to the warehouse to grab his tools.

The cat doesn’t follow him, remaining seated like an ancient Egyptian statue, not even blinking while Bokuto walks back and forth from the warehouse to the pond gathering everything he’ll need. 

Bokuto sits down besides the cat, taking out his shoes so he can put his boots. A big shadows swims towards them, white stain glinting under the sun.

“There you are!”, Bokuto chirps happily, watching the black koi swimming in circles a few time. “You two decided to make me a visit today, ah?”, he jokes, patting the cat once again before getting into the pond.

Bokuto plays around with Keiji for a while, giving the fish all the attention that it seems to want until it gets tired and swims away. Then Bokuto starts to work on the pond, because even though they’ll do a new one, he needs to keep everything healthy and fine until the new house is ready. He’s excited to be involved on this project – leading it to be more precise – and he doesn’t want to anything to go wrong.

The afternoon comes and goes with Bokuto taking care of the pond, stopping now and then to give Keiji some attention when the fish nudges his boots, and playing a bit with the cat when he seems to be ok with that. Bokuto doesn’t even see the time passing by him and when Mr. Kozume calls him from the balcony he startles, looking around in surprise to see that the sun had already set.

Bokuto walks to inside the house after he had cleaned everything and put his tools on the warehouse, finding Mr. Kozume making some tea on the kitchen.

“Akaashi said you don’t like tea…”, Mr. Kozume says and Bokuto freezes, biting down his lip. “I can make you a coffee if you want.”

“Oh… I… I don’t want to give you trouble, Mr. K.”, Bokuto smiles awkwardly and Mr. Kozume just shrugs.

“It’s ok. Do you want it?”, Mr. Kozume asks again, walking around the kitchen, already dressed on his kimono.

“I would like it, yes.”, Bokuto says gently, walking to the kitchen area and sitting on the stool.

Mr. Kozume nods, starting to make the coffee for Bokuto. Even though Bokuto isn’t working for them for a long time, he already knows that Mr. Kozume doesn’t enjoy making little talk, Mr. Kuroo actually being the most talkative of the couple. So he just stays there, watching Mr. Kozume works with this kind of lightness that he has. If Bokuto stops to think, the magic aura isn’t just Akaashi’s, but the whole place seems engulfed on some sort of magic.

“Here.”, Mr. Kozume says softly, placing the mug with the hot black coffee on the black stone of the counter in front of Bokuto.

“Thank you, sir.”, Bokuto smiles, blowing the liquid before trying a small sip. It’s a really good coffee.

“How’s the koi pond project going?”, Mr. Kozume asks lightly and Bokuto takes a new sip.

“Pretty good, actually. I talked with my dad Saturday and we’re already moving the things so he can start the reform as soon as possible.”, Bokuto says with a smile and Mr. Kozume nods.

“Tetsurou said he would see a farm where he can let the fishes until the reform ends. He has a friend that has a fish farm.”, Mr. Kozume explains and Bokuto hums in agreement.

“I believe he’ll be more comfortable if he lets the fishes, mostly Keiji, with someone he knows.”, Bokuto agrees and Mr. Kozume nods again.

“It’ll be easy for him to work knowing that his fishes are on familiar hands.”, Mr. Kozume says, sipping his tea slowly.

“I think we can start to take out the fishes and plants from the pond next week if it’s ok for Mr. T”, Bokuto says thoughtful, looking over his shoulder to the pond outside, the lights already on.

“I’ll talk to him about it, but I’m sure his schedule will be free for the next month or so.”, Mr. Kozume says, following Bokuto’s look with his own.

“That’s good, we should take advantage of the good weather to work on the reform.”, Bokuto’s eyes travels from the pond to the blue path leading to the river. “I dreamed about those lights.”

“About… the lights?”, Mr. Kozume asks, confused.

“Yeah. It was more like a nightmare, though.”, Bokuto says airily, blinking a few times and turning his head back at Mr. Kozume, drinking his coffee again.

“You’re having nightmares about our lights?”, Mr. Kozume frowns lightly, trying to understand.

“Hm, I guess?”, Bokuto frowns, also confused. “It’s not about the lights, I think. It’s more about…” _Keiji and Akaashi_ , Bokuto wanted to say, but instead he just sighs. “I don’t know, I think it’s the stress because of the job. My dad is always on my neck.”

“I’m sure he’ll relax once you show them that you’re doing a good job.”, Mr. Kozume assures him and Bokuto smiles, finishing his coffee.

“Maybe, yeah.”, Bokuto nods, getting up as Mr. Kozume grabs the mug, “Thank you for the coffee, Mr. K! Can you tell Mr. T that I’ll call him this week so we can talk about the pond?”

“Sure.”, Mr. Kozume nods, walking Bokuto to the door. “Drive safely, ok? It’s dark outside.”

Bokuto nods, walking to his car. The cat is there, under the shadow of a tree and Bokuto smiles at the animal. He gets into the truck, pulling back and driving away from the house. Bokuto can see from the rearview mirror the cat passing between Mr. Kozume’s legs and entering the house, Mr. Kozume following after him and closing the door.

-

Bokuto doesn’t to the house in the woods on Friday; it’s raining so there’s no use on him going there. Instead he goes to the mall with his friends to watch some movie and have some fun. He’s still feeling weird about his dreams, and he even talks about them with his friends, hoping that someone could read something on them. But neither of his friends understands about reading dreams so, of course, they end up searching about it on the internet.

“I’m sure there’s something about those weird dreams on Google.”, Konoha says while typing on his phone.

“I would be happier if there’s something about how to stop them.”, Bokuto mutters, squished between Konoha and Komi on the couch of Komi’s house.

“You can’t stop dreams! Dreams are messages.”, Komi says, looking over Bokuto’s shoulder to Konoha’s, phone screen.

“What’s the use of dreams being messages if I can’t decipher them?!”, Bokuto huffs in frustration, squeezing his cheek against Konoha’s shoulder.

“We’ll find out what they mean.”, Konoha assures him, searching through the pages on Google while trying to find something useful.

Bokuto sighs already feeling defeated, and closes his eyes. He’s feeling tired, his nights of sleep not really giving him any rest. Bokuto feels his body weakening and his mind is exhausted. He needs a nap. Maybe in the middle of his friends he won’t have those nightmares. Before he can think better, his tiredness wins over him.

-

He’s back in the forest, everything is dark around him.

The first light lights up and he starts to run.

There’s this need of urgency hammering his chest.

He needs to be faster. He needs to run.

He’s almost there.

Almost there.

He can already see the cliff.

Wait.

Please. 

Wait.

He reaches out for the man he knows is there.

-

“I found it!”, Konoha’s scream of joy startles Bokuto awake.

Bokuto looks around, trying to understand what is happening. Konoha is showing him his phone, but Bokuto’s eyes are foggy and he can read. He mumbles something that sounds like “wait” and gets up to go to the bathroom to wash his face.

Bokuto looks at himself in the mirror and sees how much his bad sleeping nights are affecting him. The bags under his eyes are darker than ever and his normally tanned skin is faded, making him look sick. He sighs, opening the tap and letting the water run down the drain for a couple seconds before washing his face so he can wake up a bit more.  
When Bokuto gets back to the living room of Komi’s small apartment, he’s feeling a little bit better about himself, but is still tired and weak. Bokuto walks quietly back to the couch, sitting between Konoha and Komi again.

Konoha looks at him with an worried expression, “Are you feeling alright?”

“Yes, it’s just…. I’m not having good nights of sleep so I’m feeling pretty shitty.”, Bokuto explain, running his hand over his hair.

“You should go to the doctor to take some medicine.”, Komi suggests, but knowing already that Bokuto despites doctor with all his will.

“Nah, I’m good.”, Bokuto shrugs, before turning to Konoha, “What have you found?”

“Hm?”, Konoha asks, seeming confused, before remembering about what Bokuto is talking. “Oh, right! Well, there’s this website saying that those kinds of dreams that you have are dreams of your past lives.”

“My past-Konoha, you can’t seriously believe this.”, Bokuto sighs, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “I’m fine. The dreams aren’t messages or anything, it’s just the stress. Mr. T pond will be awesome, but it’s a pain in the ass to have to lead everyone through this.”

“I’m just saying what I’ve found.”, Konoha grumbles, but taking pity on Bokuto’s situation, he reaches for Bokuto’s head and strokes his locks slowly. “I’m sure you’ll do good, Kou. You’re actually good on what you do. Just try to relax a bit.”

“Yeah, but it’s not that easy. I really want to this project to be good, you know? Not just because it’s my first solo job, but because everyone in that house is almost… magical… I want to give them something to match.”

“They’ll love it, Kou.”, Komi says, patting Bokuto’s thigh affectionately.

“I hope so.”, Bokuto sighs, because in the end he isn’t _that_ confident about how the work would go.

The rest of the night passes like a blur. They watch movies and eat pizza, Komi and Konoha bother Bokuto to no end about his undeniable crush on Akaashi; they even do plans about how Bokuto should ask Akaashi to marry him, those bastards. Sarukui join them after a few hours, fighting his own tiredness so he can hang out with his friends. 

When it’s pass three in the morning, they go to sleep, Konoha and Bokuto sharing the futons on the ground while Komi and Sarukui resume to snuggle on their bed.  
The tiredness of the day, added to his bad nights, take a tool over Bokuto and he falls asleep like a rock. A sleep without dreams; just the pitch black and calm darkness engulfing him through the night.

-

When Monday morning comes and Bokuto drives to the house in the woods, he’s excited. They’ll be doing the fish extraction today and Bokuto can’t help but be worried about it. It’s his first fish extraction on his own and even though his team will be there, it’s still nerve wracking to him. So when he parks on his usual parking space, Bokuto needs a couple minutes to calm down.

After Bokuto finally manages to calm himself, he walks into the house, calling for the owners. Mr. Kuroo greets him from the outside, and Bokuto finds him sitting by the pond with the feet into the water. Keiji lazily swims around his feet, brushing against Mr. Kuroo’s legs in a way more intimacy way than Bokuto had ever seen.

“Morning, Mr. T!”, Bokuto smiles, sitting down beside Mr. Kuroo in a semi lotus position, “Hey you too, Keiji!”

“Good morning, Bokuto.”, Mr. Kuroo smiles, tapping his toes against Keiji’s tail when the fish passes by him. “I’m just saying goodbye.”

“It’s not a goodbye, sir, it’s more of a see you later.”, Bokuto smiles, watching Keiji swimming to the other side of the pond.

“I know, but it’ll be pretty sad to look outside and don’t have them with me.”, Mr. Kuroo says, splashing water lightly with his feet, and the fishes seem to be unbothered by it.

“Uh, but they’ll have a better home when they get back.”, Bokuto says, looking to the pond as Keiji swims back to brush against Kuroo’s ankles again. “He really likes you.”

“That’s true”, Mr. Kuroo agrees, looking at the black koi, “We’re together it have a long, long time… I think he grew fond of me, somehow.”

“I’m sure Keiji likes you a lot, Mr. T”, Bokuto assures, even though he knows he doesn’t need to assure anything on that matter because it’s pretty obvious that Keiji is, in fact, extremely fond of Mr. Kuroo.

“So, when will the team come to pick them?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, supporting his weight on his hands behind his body and turning his face up to the sun.

“At nine.”, Bokuto says, looking at his watch, it was half past eight now.

“Hm”, Mr. Kuroo nods, slowly lying down against the grass, closing his eyes.

“Hey, Mr. T…”, Bokuto calls after a couple minutes of silently watching Keiji swimming.

“Yes?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, keeping his eyes closed, enjoying the morning sun.

“I-Hm, I mean… I just- Well, you see… Tsc, why is that so difficult?”, Bokuto groans, sighing in frustration.

“It’s okay, I have time…”, Mr. Kuroo says gently, intertwining his fingers over his belly.

Bokuto takes a deep breath, letting the air go out of his chest slowly to relax. “I just want to say thank you…”, he says after a while and Mr. Kuroo frowns in confusion, “For letting me staying in the lead of the project. It’s my first job alone and my dad doesn’t like the idea of me taking care of a project this big, so… Thanks. For real.”

“Hm, you have nothing to thank me for, Bokuto.”, Mr. Kuroo says, popping open one of his golden eyes and directing his gaze to Bokuto’s face. “I trust in your professionalism because you showed me in the course of the weeks you have been working here that I can trust it. So the merit is all yours.”

“Oh! Hm, but… Even so, thank you.”, Bokuto says, feeling his face hot and he knows he’s all flushed.

“You’re welcome.”, Mr. Kuroo smiles, closing his eye again.

Bokuto smiles and turns his face to look at the black koi swimming around. Its amaze Bokuto how comfortable Keiji actually is with Mr. Kuroo, swimming so close that he often brushes against Mr. Kuroo’s shin. Bokuto’s line of thoughts travels to another being and he wonders if he could ask what he wants to ask to Mr. Kuroo.

The sound of the door bell startle both of them and Mr. Kuroo gets up to answer the door. Bokuto missed his chance and accepts this as a signal that it wasn’t the right time to ask Mr. Kuroo about Akaashi. Maybe later he’ll be more comfortable to ask.

Mr. Kuroo calls Bokuto, letting him know that it was his team and that they are currently entering the property. So Bokuto gets up and walks back to the house so he and Mr. Kuroo can walk to the front yard to meet the team. Bokuto introduces Mr. Kuroo to everyone and after that all of them walk to the backyard to see the pond and the fishes. 

After half of an hour Mr. Kuroo’s friend, a bald guy named Tanaka, arrived to help them too. The fish extraction begins at ten and it’s a hard work. Mr. Kuroo has a lot of fishes, and they extract them one by one carefully to not cause any harm. 

When Keiji is the only one left in the pond, Mr. Kuroo enters the water and carefully corners the fish where he can’t hide, holding him gently in place. Bokuto hops into the water with the container, filling it with water and waiting. But unlike the other fishes, Mr. Kuroo doesn’t grab Keiji in his arms, he just carefully leads the fish to inside the container and Keiji follows obediently. The fish never fails to amaze Bokuto.

After Tanaka takes the fishes away, Mr. Kuroo enters his kitchen to make lunch to everyone and Bokuto and his team keep working to extracting the plants so they can drain out the pond. They’re working hard to clean up the pond entirely today so they can start the work on the next day, but it’s a big pong with a lot of small details to take care of before doing anything.

Mr. Kuroo calls them to eat and Bokuto and his three workers sit down on the balcony to lunch while Mr. Kuroo was inside Mr. Kozume’s office talking to him. Mr. Kuroo’s food is amazing and they all eat in silent before taking half an hour of rest. Without having what to do and not feeling sleepy enough to take a nap, Bokuto walks all the way down to the river. It’s even prettier at daylight, the water is clear and the gravel light gray.

Bokuto decides to sit down near the water, taking off his boots and rolling up his pants so he can put his feet on the water. He sighs, closing his eyes and enjoying the cool sensation of the cold water against his warm skin. 

Warm and soft hands cover his eyes and Bokuto startles a bit. “Knock knock.”, the stranger says, except that Bokuto knows that melodic voice and smiles.

“Who’s there?”, He asks softly, blinking a few times.

“Hm… I don’t know how to keep up with the joke.”, Akaashi admits, uncovering Bokuto’s eyes.

“You need to step up your humor, Akaashi.”, Bokuto smiles, looking up to see Akaashi standing behind him and bended slightly over him.

“I think so.”, Akaashi agrees, flashing him a gentle smile.

Akaashi is beautiful in his casual clothes; dark blue jeans that clingy onto his pretty legs, simple black long-sleeved shirt and boots. Bokuto watches carefully as Akaashi sits beside him.

“I saw you moved the fishes.”, Akaashi says, copying Bokuto and taking out his boots.

“Yep, they’re already on Tanaka’s fish farm. I’m sure they’ll be well cared.”, Bokuto smiles, watching as Akaashi rolls up his pants and put his feet into the water. “But I’m worried about Keiji.”

“Tanaka is a good guy.”, Akaashi says softly, moving his toes on the water. “With Keiji? Why?”

“Hm, Keiji seems to be a pretty sensible fish… I don’t think he’ll be happy being alone.”, Bokuto says honestly, just a bit afraid of Akaashi thinking that he’s crazy for talking that way about a fish.

“Oh.”, Akaashi says and his expression softens, “I’m sure he’ll do ok. Keiji is a strong fish, he knows how to take care of himself.”

“Yeah, but you should have seen him with Mr. T! He was so comfortable and at ease… I’m worried that he can get sick for being away.”, Bokuto sighs, his shoulders dropping.

“Koutaro, Keiji can handle himself just fine, ok? You don’t need to worry.”, Akaashi beams at him and Bokuto isn’t sure how he managed to keep breathing.

“O-Ok.”, Bokuto agrees, turning his face to the river, trying to hide his blush.

They stay in comfortable silence after that, both playing with the water on their feet. It’s weird how comfortable it is to Bokuto to be around Akaashi. Bokuto normally talks to no end about everything and nothing –most of the time annoying people around him – but it doesn’t bug him to be in silence with Akaashi, because somehow Akaashi calms him. Akaashi also doesn’t seem to be bothered with being around Bokuto, which is also weird because normally people that aren’t his friend don’t like to be around Bokuto’s energetic personality.

“Have you been sleeping well?”, Akaashi asks after a long moment of silence.

“Hm, not much. I think that I’m more blacking out because of exhaustion than anything else.”, Bokuto sighs, passing his hand through his gelled hair.

“I know you hate teas, but maybe you should try some bedtime tea, Koutaro…”, Akaashi says, and he seems so worried that Bokuto’s heart hurt.

“I think I’ll try some. Maybe it’ll help.”, Bokuto nods, smilling at Akaashi.

“Maybe.”, Akaashi agrees and they fall into comfortable silence again.

Bokuto lost the count of the time while being sitting on the riverside with Akaashi. If it was with any other person, Bokuto would feel weird to be in silence for so long, but with Akaashi it just seems right. Akaashi is a quiet person; Bokuto had noticed it already that Akaashi isn’t as quiet as Mr. Kozume, but quiet nonetheless. So Bokuto thinks it’s only fair that Akaashi isn’t bothered by the silence in any way.

When one of the guys from Bokuto’s team calls after him, he sighs and puts back his boots before getting up. “I need to go back to work.”, he says softly at Akaashi.  
“I’ll stay here for a little more.”, Akaashi says with a smile and Bokuto nods.

Bokuto walks back to the pond to resume on working. It takes the rest of the afternoon to him and his team to extract all the plants and rocks, draining out the pond after that. Since they still have a couple hours until the sunset, they start to extract the plants around the pond. The plants, rocks and everything else that aren’t the fishes will be storage on the company, being well cared by Mr. Bokuto’s team. 

Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon Mr. Kozume walked passed them, watching with a pained expression as he sees his once beautiful backyard turned into a warzone. Bokuto looks apologetically at him but Mr. Kozume just shrugs and walks to the river, probably to stay with Akaashi that hadn’t returned yet. 

Only after the sunset that Mr. Kuroo appears again, seeming stressed, but smilling at Bokuto and his team. “I’m sorry for leaving you all alone during the day. I’m having a difficult case overseas that is giving me a hell of a headache.”, he explains and Bokuto beams at him.

“There’s nothing to you to worry about, Mr. T! We can handle everything.”, Bokuto assures him and his team nods in agreement. 

“You’ll have to prove me that, because I’ll need to travel again.”, Mr. Kuroo says with a heavy sigh.

“B, you’ll travel again?”, Mr. Kozume asks as he steps on the balcony, Akaashi by his side.

“Unfortunately, love. That case on Egypt is being complicated.”, Mr. Kuroo sighs again, seeming worned out by the said case.

“Oh.”, Mr. Kozume nods, but his shoulders drop a bit.

“I’ll be back quickly this time.”, Mr. Kuroo assures him, before looking at Akaashi. “Kaashi, can you take care of the pond reform while I’m overseas?”

“Sure.”, Akaashi agrees, his expression serious because he probably wants to assure Mr. Kuroo that everything will be alright while he’s gone.

“Mr. T, don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated by e-mail!”, Bokuto grins at him. 

Mr. Kuroo nods, grinning at him too before saying goodbye to everyone and walking back to inside the house with a less happy Mr. Kozume. Akaashi sighs, passing his hand through his hair while watching the couple walking through one of the halls until they disappear of their sight.

“Mr. K doesn’t seem very happy.”, Bokuto observes, walking to the front yard with his team to leave.

“He doesn’t like the fact that Tetsurou needs to be always travelling.”, Akaashi says while following them, he and Bokuto walking a couple steps back from the rest of the team.

“Hm, it’s probably really awful…”, Bokuto says thoughtful and Akaashi shrugs.

“It is the price for them being together… Tetsurou can stay with Kenma as long as he doesn’t leave his job.”, Akaashi says solemnly and when Bokuto looks confused at him, he shrugs again, “Tetsurou’s dad terms.”

“Oh, I see.”, Bokuto nods.”Why don’t they move to Egypt?”

“Hm, they met there and live there for a few years after getting married. But I think Kenma got tired of the always golden landscape, so they travelled the world together before settling here in Japan.”, Akaashi explains.

Bokuto’s team wave goodbye to them and Akaashi gets back into the house to open the gate for them. He’s back after a couple minutes, when Bokuto can’t see his team’s cars anymore. They walk together to Bokuto’s car, Bokuto throwing his backpack on the rear seat

“They travelled the world together? How old are them?”, Bokuto frowns, because the couple don’t seem much older than him.

“They’re way older than you’re thinking.”, Akaashi smiles simply and Bokuto sighs, somehow knowing that he won’t be able to have an answer.

“Well, I’ll be going now. See you tomorrow, huh?”, Bokuto smiles, entering his truck. Akaashi smiles back and step back a couple meters.

Bokuto turns on the car, but instead of the roar that his car engine normally gives, the car coughs a few times, choking and dying. Bokuto frowns, trying again but having the same problem. He sighs deeply, passing his fingers through his gelled up hair.

“Great.”, Bokuto mutters, jumping off of the car and walking to the hood, opening it.

“Is everything ok?”, Akaashi asks, worried, walking towards Bokuto.

“Hm, I think something is wrong with him.”, Bokuto answers as he checks under the hood to see if something was wrong there.

“Do you want me to call Tetsurou?”, Akaashi asks, seeming lost about the issue, not that Bokuto knows anything about cars too.

“No, he and Mr. K are talking… I’ll call Aki.”, Bokuto says, picking his phone and dialing Konoha’s number. “Hey, dude. Are you busy?”, he asks after Konoha picked.

“Yes.”, Konoha says, followed by a muffled moan.

“Akinori, it’s seven in the afternoon of a Monday, I can’t believe you’re having sex.”, Bokuto sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Some of us actually have sex, Kou.”, Konoha says, his voice wavering a bit. “Huh, no. Keep going.”, Konoha says to someone before sighing a little “ah”.

“Dude, what the fuck? Seriously?”, Bokuto groans, the tip of his ears getting red because Akaashi is looking at him with a curious expression. “I kinda need your help.”

“My help? For-AH… Slow down, I need to talk.”, Konoha says to the person and Bokuto can hear a wet pop.

“Actually, I’m going to call Komi. You… Keep doing your stuff.”, Bokuto says, face-palming himself in embarrassment. 

“What? No. I’m your best friend. What do you need?”, Konoha asks and Bokuto knows that he can’t call Komi without Konoha allowing him to.

“My car died and I need you to pick me up on the house in the woods.”, Bokuto says, sighing heavily.

“The house in the woods? Ooh! Is the pretty guy with you?!”, Konoha asks, suddenly excited.

“What?”, Bokuto blushes, side-glancing Akaashi. “Well... Yes…”

“I’m going!”, Konoha exclaims, so loudly that Bokuto needs to put the phone away from his ear.

“What? Why? Aren’t you having sex?”, Bokuto asks, massaging his temple with his index finger.

“Priorities, Koutaro, priorities!”, Konoha says, and Bokuto can hear him getting dressed. “Text me the address.”, Konoha asks and the last thing that Bokuto hears is someone else’s whine before Konoha hangs up.

“I swear to god, this guy…”, Bokuto sighs, texting the address before looking at Akaashi, “I apology in advance for whatever this idiot do.”

Akaashi giggles, covering his mouth with his hand and shaking his head, “It’s ok. He’s probably a really good friend to stop his _business_ to pick you.”

“Yeah, let’s not pretend that he isn’t curious.”, Bokuto mumbles, following Akaashi’s lead to the stairs and sitting by his side.

“Curious?”, Akaashi asks, looking at him and Bokuto can’t stop thinking how pretty Akaashi is, the light over them giving Akaashi’s ridiculous good looking face a new kind of magic.

“Yeah. About the house, and you all.”, Bokuto answers, still pinned by Akaashi’s beauty. “I talk a lot about this job, so my friends are all curious.”

“Oh, I see.”, Akaashi smiles, looking to the front yard, “I hope the house lives up to his expectation.”

“Are you kidding me? This house is awesome.”, Bokuto grins, supporting his weight on his hands as he leans back to look at the starry sky. “Everything in this place seems magical.”

“Nature is a magical thing.”, Akaashi agrees, closing his eyes.

Bokuto closes his too, breathing slowly and calming down his heart. He starts to hear the sounds of the nature around him, the insects and the river, even the wind is doing a comfortable noise. Once again they fall into silence, and once again Bokuto doesn’t mind. Being around Akaashi is like a relaxation drug, all of Bokuto’s hyper energy being tamed and he can’t find himself wanting to complain.

The time passes by them, somewhere along the hour they end up lying down on the black slate to stare at the sky. Bokuto isn’t sure when, but Akaashi starts to tell him about the starts, pointing the constellations that they can see from their spot. He’s entranced by Akaashi’s voice, looking at the sky in a way he had never did, wanting to know more about the small sparkling dots on the dark blue sheet. 

It is only when the intercom rings, popping their magical bubble, that Akaashi gets up to walk to answer, leaving Bokuto alone to think. Bokuto can’t quite understand how he can be pining so hard for a man that he knows close to nothing, but he is. It doesn’t bother him, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t think it’s weird. Bokuto isn’t a person that develops crushes on other people. But Akaashi is special, he feels like magic and Bokuto always loved magic.

“Your friend is here.”, Akaashi says, looking down at Bokuto that is still lying on the ground.

“Oh, alright.”, Bokuto smiles, accepting Akaashi’s hand to get up.

Konoha’s silver car makes the turn a minute later and Bokuto points out where his friend should park. Konoha gets out of the car and Bokuto can say that Konoha was doing a photoshoot because of the makeup on his face and his styled hair. Bokuto can physically see when Konoha sees Akaashi, because Konoha gasps, his eyes widening while his mouth gaps. Bokuto can understand the shock, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t tease his best friend later.

“Hey, Aki.”, Bokuto grins and Konoha straightens himself, “Akaashi, this is Konoha, he’s my best friend and a model, that’s why he’s all dressed up… Normally he wears pajamas.”

“Hey.”, Konoha huffs, but Akaashi laughs.

“Nice to meet you, Konoha.”, Akaashi says softly and Konoha, to Bokuto complete surprise, blushes.

“Well, Konoha, this is Akaashi. He is Mr. T’s cousin.”, Bokuto introduces, smilling brightly.

“Nice to meet you too, Akaashi.”, Konoha says with a small smile. “So, your car?”

“Oh, yeah. I don’t know what happened.”, Bokuto frowns and the three of them walk to the car that still have the hood opened.

Konoha leans into the hood, looking around before sighing, “I have zero ideas of what I’m looking at.”

“Akinori!”, Bokuto groans and Akaashi giggles.

“Wait a second.”, Akaashi asks, walking to inside the house.

As soon as Akaashi disappears inside the house, Konoha starts to slap Bokuto’s arm with both of his hands, “Dude! Dude!”, Konoha exclaims, eyes wide and sparkling, “He’s so pretty!”

“I know! Jesus Christ, shut up!”, Bokuto hushes, his cheeks reddening. 

Before Konoha can add anything else to their conversation, Akaashi steps out of the house, being followed by Mr. Kuroo. Bokuto had never saw Mr. Kuroo in casual clothes before, so he gets surprised when he sees Mr. Kuroo in dark blue jeans and black button-down shirt, seeming ready to go out. Konoha pinches Bokuto’s biceps roughly and Bokuto needs to suppress a yelp; he knows how weak Konoha is for business men, so the reaction isn’t surprising.

“Hey, Mr. T!”, Bokuto grins before introducing his best friend, “This is Konoha, he come to pick me because my car is dead. Konoha, this is Mr. T.”

“Nice to meet you, Konoha.”, Mr. Kuroo gives them his Cheshire cat grin.

“Nice to meet you, sir”, Konoha answers, seeming completely off. Bokuto wonders if he got that affected by them on the first time they met.

“Can I see your car?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, rolling his sleeves a bit more before start to looking into the car hood.

Bokuto, Konoha and Akaashi just watch while Mr. Kuroo walks around searching for the problem on the vehicle. Mr. Kozume joins them to watch Mr. Kuroo working, and he’s also dressed in simple casual clothes; Bokuto figures that they will probably go out and he can’t help but feel a bit guilty for delaying their plans. 

Mr. Kuroo asks Bokuto to get into the car and try to turn it on again, but the engine chokes and dies again. Mr. Kuroo sighs, frowning thoughtful to the car before resuming on working. 

“I’m sorry for the trouble, Mr. K.”, Bokuto asks quietly when he walks back to be with the other three.

“Hm, it’s not always that I get to see B doing manual labor. I can’t complain.”, Mr. Kozume says even quieter, his golden eyes never leaving Mr. Kuroo’s figure.

Akaashi giggles and Bokuto isn’t sure but he thinks Mr. Kozume blushed a little. 

“Well…”, Mr. Kuroo says, grabbing everyone’s attention to him. “There’s nothing unconnected. I think that maybe your carburetor is dirty or unregulated.”, he says while walking to the spigot beside the stairs. 

“Is that bad?”, Bokuto asks, because he honestly hasn’t a single idea of what this can mean.

“Not that bad, but I don’t think your car will work tonight, it needs to go to a mechanic.”, Mr. Kuroo says, crouching by the spigot to wash his hand dirty with grease. 

“Shit.”, Bokuto mumbles under his breath.

“Isn’t Tanaka’s boyfriend a mechanic, love?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, still trying to clean his fingers.

“I think so.”, Mr. Kozume nods, handing Mr. Kuroo a small clothe so he can dry his hands.

“I won’t be here tomorrow morning, but I can leave the phone number with Akaashi so you can call him when you get here. I just need to find his business card.”, Mr. Kuroo says thoughtful, looking to inside his house as if wondering where he had put the mechanic’s business card.

“That would be great, sir.”, Bokuto says, grateful for the help. “Is it ok if I let my car here for tonight?”

“Yeah, of course.”, Kuroo nods and Bokuto grins.

“Thank you!”, Bokuto chirps happily before turning to Konoha, “We should get going.”

“Yes, sure!”, Konoha nods, and he still seems a bit off. 

“See you tomorrow, Akaashi, Mr. K.”, Bokuto smiles brightly, “Mr. T, have a nice trip!”

Konoha says goodbye too and they get into the car. After a quick goodbye, Konoha drives away from the house, the gate being already open when they get to it. Bokuto waits, looking to the dark woods around them, enjoying the night breeze, because he knows it’ll come soon. 

“They’re so pretty!”, Konoha exclaims, almost offended, and Bokuto laughs.

“There it is.”, Bokuto says, still laughing, because he was waiting for Konoha to bring this up.

“But that’s so unfair! How can three people _that_ beautiful live under the same roof?!”, Konoha groans, frustration dripping from his words.

“I don’t know, dude. I really don’t know. I’ve given up on trying understanding when Mr. T appeared and he’s as ridiculously beautiful as Akaashi and Mr. K.”, Bokuto sighs, looking to Konoha’s offended expression.

“They can’t be real! They look almost… Inhuman!”, Konoha says, finally entering the highway.

“Right? They’re so attractive.”, Bokuto sighs, slouching against the car seat. “So, you were fooling around again?”

“Oh, that. It was nothing, just a guy that were in the photoshoot with me…”, Konoha shrugs, because he is all about casual sex and no commitment.

“Someday someone will appear and put a leash on you, Aki.”, Bokuto smiles lazily.

“I know. That’s why I’m enjoying everything that I can now.”, Konoha smirks at him and Bokuto ruffs a laugh.

Bokuto turns on, not taking long to him and Konoha start to sing along loudly as they usually do when they’re together. Bokuto and Konoha know each other since middle school, bonding over volleyball and quickly becoming best friends. They met Komi and Sarukui due to volleyball on their first year of high school and the four of them never stayed apart of each other since then.

Before they get to Bokuto’s house they stop by a supermarket so Bokuto can buy the bedtime tea that Akaashi had recommended earlier. Konoha teases Bokuto about how cute his leash is and Bokuto almost drops him in a freezer full of frozen food.

Bokuto tries the tea that night, not being much found of the taste, but somehow it helps him to fall asleep easier.

-

On the next morning he needs to go with one of the guys of his team to the house in the woods, since his car is still useless parked at the said house. Truth to be told, Bokuto doesn’t really know his team; they were his dad’s employees way longer before Bokuto started to work at the family company, so he isn’t sure if they are happy with being leaded by someone so young, which makes him extremely uncomfortable with the car ride.

But Akaashi is waiting for them on the front yard when they arrive, and suddenly Bokuto’s day is bright and warm again. Akaashi leads them all to the backyard, explaining to Bokuto that Mr. Kozume went to the airport with Mr. Kuroo and that he will also spend the day at his company on the city. Bokuto assures Akaashi that they will work without bothering him, but Akaashi only smiles softly at him, making Bokuto feel all warm inside. His crush is really getting out of hand.

Akaashi calls Bokuto to the inside of the house after he had settled everything with his team so they can start to work on the pond. Akaashi guides Bokuto to Mr. Kuroo’s office, handing him a small white business card.

“This is Ennoshita’s number. Tetsurou said you should call him early so he can have time to take care of your car.”, Akaashi says, indicating the phone over Mr. Kuroo’s desk.

“Oh. Right. Sure, I’ll call him. Thank you, Akaashi.”, Bokuto grins, walking to the phone.

Akaashi leaves him alone to call and Bokuto types Ennoshita’s number. The guy picks up after a couple rings and Bokuto explains to him what had happened on the night before. The guy asks for a few informations about the car and says that he’ll go there to see the car a little after midday and Bokuto agrees after confirming with Akaashi if that would be okay. Bokuto resumes on working after that.

Because the house is almost one hour of driving into the woods, everyone ends up lunching there and Akaashi cooks for them. While Mr. Kuroo’s food feels like mother food, something cozy and warm that hugs you, Akaashi’s food is more like something that should be served at a fancy restaurant. Even a simple and traditional Japanese lunch looks and tastes like fancy food; Bokuto doesn’t even know how to start eating, lost on the eight-dishes lunch.

Bokuto decides to help Akaashi with the dishes while the rest of the team is resting after they ate lunch. So Akaashi washes while Bokuto dries and they work together for almost half of an hour; and Bokuto enjoys the feeling of domesticity that came with the act. 

Ennoshita rings the doorbell a little after they had resumed on working on the pond and Bokuto once again needs to leave his team to deal with it; it wouldn’t be fair if he let Akaashi deal with the problems of his car. Bokuto walks towards the front yard with Akaashi, a white car parking beside the pickup after a couple minutes. A man with black hair and fair skin walks out of the car, smaller than both Bokuto and Akaashi, his serious expression being softened by his calm smile.

“Hello there, Akaashi. Long time no see.”, the man says and Akaashi shakes his hand.

“That’s true, Ennoshita.”, Akaashi smiles gently before turning to Bokuto, “This is Bokuto Koutaro, he’s working on Tetsurou’s pond. It’s his car that died. Koutaro, this is Ennoshita Chikara, he is Tanaka’s boyfriend and a mechanical.”

“Nice to meet you.”, Bokuto smiles, shaking Ennoshita’s hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Bokuto. Now, where’s the car?”, Ennoshita asks politely

Bokuto leads him towards the car, opening the hood again when Ennoshita asks him and trying to turning the car on; but failing again. Ennoshita nods to himself about something before digging into the hood.

“You can go back to your work, Bokuto, I don’t want to hold you here.”, Ennoshita says from almost inside the hood, “I can call you when I figure out what is happening.”

“Oh, great! Thank you, Ennoshita!”, Bokuto beams, running to the backyard after saying goodbye to Akaashi. He really needs to get going with the pond.

Since it’s a really personal and delicate project, once every single detail was well planned by Mr. Kuroo, Bokuto needs to keep himself alert for everything that is happening. The most difficult part, on his opinion, is to dig the hole, the design of the new pond being a challenge. But they manage to trace out exactly what Mr. Kuroo had draw, marking everything very carefully. Ennoshita calls Bokuto after almost one hour and Bokuto follows him to the front yard.

“Well, your carburetor is dirty as hell, so I need to clean him.”, Ennoshita explain, pointing out something that Bokuto supposes is the carburetor.

“Alright. You do what you need.”, Bokuto says, peeking into the hood as if he truly understand what is happening.

“It’ll not take long, I have the tools with me. I’ll probably finish before you need to go.”, Ennoshita says, leaning against the pick-up.

“Great! That will be awesome.”, Bokuto grins and Ennoshita smiles back. “I’ll go back to the pond, you do whatever you need.”

“Sure, sure. Go there.”, Ennoshita nods and Bokuto runs back to the backyard again.

Digging a hole shouldn’t be as hard as it actually is, mostly because the way that the house was built doesn’t allow them to bring excavators; besides the fact that Mr. Kuroo had said that Mr. Kozume would freak out if he saw excavators on his garden, so they quitted the idea. So they have to dig the whole new pond by hand and as much as Bokuto has a good amount of strength, being under the sun and working are awful. Akaashi keep bringing iced tea to them to help with the heat and Bokuto can only thanks the heaven that it isn’t summer yet.

By the middle of the afternoon Bokuto is already feeling disgusting, his shirt hanging loosely on the hook of his jeans, all his upper body sweaty and dirty with dirt. The thick gloves that he’s using to prevent his hand to get skinned by the shovel handle are heavy and his fingers feel sore. He knows that everything is bothering so much because he isn’t used to hand working since he usually only follows his father around and take care of the fishes. So Bokuto swallow his complains and keep working until Ennoshita calls him to the front yard again almost in the end of the day.

“So, I cleaned the carburetor. It’s working just fine.”, Ennoshita says with a smile while cleaning his hands dirty with grease.

“Thank you so much!”, Bokuto grins happily.

Ennoshita shows Bokuto how the car is really working and they chat a bit about the condition of the car, Ennoshita giving him some tips to take care of the old pickup. But it doesn’t take long until Ennoshita is gone and Bokuto is back to his work at the pond, wanting to do the most of his day even though it’s almost in the end.  
When the day finally comes to an end and Bokuto says goodbye to his team, his hands are sore and he’s feeling utterly disgusting; but he suck it up and just tries to fin Akaashi inside the house so he can say goodbye to him too. 

“Akaashi?”, Bokuto calls from the front door, too dirty to walk around the house.

“Yes?”, the answers comes after a few minutes, Akaashi appearing from one of the halls and walking towards Bokuto.

“I’m going, alright?”, Bokuto asks, grinning despites the tiredness.

“Oh, alright. Don’t you want to stay for dinner?”, Akaashi asks softly.

“I would love to, but I’m really disgusting right now, I just want a shower and my bed.”, Bokuto laughs awkwardly, because part of him really wants to stay and have dinner with Akaashi.

“Sure, sorry! You should go and take a good rest.”, Akaashi smiles and Bokuto grins again.

“But it would be awesome to have dinner with you another time.”, Bokuto says without thinking and only realizes what he had said when he sees a faint pink tinting Akaashi’s pale cheeks, ‘I mean-No..Well, I-Just… Not in a date or something like that, just like… Friends?”, he offers, embarrassed.

“Yeah, sure.”, Akaashi nods, still flushed and smilling sheepishly.

“Great. Yeah. Really-I… Ok, well, I’m going.”, Bokuto says, stumbling on his own feet while trying to walk out of the house. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, Koutaro.”, Akaashi smiles, waving his hands as Bokuto enters his car and drives away from the house.

Bokuto can’t help but freak out through the whole travel back to his house, wanting to die even more when he notices that, on top of everything, he hadn’t had the decency of putting his stupid shirt before talking to Akaashi. If embarrassment could kill, Bokuto would definitively be death at this point.

He’s still kicking himself while taking a shower and eating dinner, but the tiredness of the day takes a tool of him and he falls asleep as soon as he touches his bed. No dreams this time, only darkness and fatigue.

-

The rest of the week follows the lead of the first day of work, the sun having no mercy over them as they work digging the whole. Bokuto knows that he can ask his father for help, ask him for more people to work so the pond won’t take too much time. But he also wants to prove himself finishing the task with the designated team without touching it, because his father thinks that four people are enough to do the job, and Bokuto isn’t willing to prove him wrong.

So Bokuto and his team keep working without complaining, the elders seeming to take the job easier than Bokuto and Bokuto can’t say he doesn’t understand the reason because he knows too well that he is in lack of experience. But as the days pass by it becomes easier to Bokuto to handle his exhaustion and he can resume on going to the gym again, wanting to work on his strength and stamina. Bokuto knows that he needs to work on his body in reason to be better on what he loves to do, that knowing all the books from head and understand about plants and fishes aren’t enough to him to take over the company when his time comes.

But when Thursday comes with heavy rain, Bokuto and his team needs to run around the yard under the thick drops of cold water to protect their work so the rain won’t wash away all their progress. Bokuto is forced to call it a day and send his team back home after they manage to cover everything that can’t be damaged with a plastic canvas.  
Bokuto sits down at the balcony and watches as the rain washes the ground from the rocks and the tools that are too big to be storage at the warehouse. He sighs, passing his hands through his face and hair, frustrated with the day without work. Muffled steps approach him and Bokuto faintly remembers that he’s alone with Akaashi because Mr. Kozume is out in the city again.

“You know… Glaring at the raindrops won’t make it stop..”, Akaashi says softly, kneeling on the wooden floor of the balcony and sitting over his heels. 

“Yeah, I know…”, Bokuto smiles faintly, supporting his weights on his own knees. “But it’s kinda frustrating.”

“Well… Why don’t you help me with dinner? You promised me that you would stay for dinner someday, right?”, Akaashi gives him a warm smile and there’s no way in hell that Bokuto can say no to that smile.

“It will be a pleasure.”, Bokuto grins, following Akaashi’s lead when he gets up. “But just so you know, I can’t cook fancy things like you do. I live of fast-food.”

Akaashi chuckles, nodding. “Let’s do something simple, then.”, he says when they reach the kitchen.

They start walk around a bit until Akaashi decides to cook some pasta, so they start to make it. It’s easy to cook with Akaashi even though Bokuto can’t make anything but ramen. Akaashi seems to understand it, because he gives easy tasks to Bokuto like peeling the vegetables, nothing that would involve fire or sharp knives. The conversation between them is easy and smooth, jumping from topic to topic without falling into silence for too long and Bokuto feels warm inside despites the cold rain pouring outside.

Once they finish making the food, they sit down on the balcony to eat, the rain still chastising the land around them and providing a comfortable white noise as background of their conversation. Bokuto sits down and leans against one of the pillars and Akaashi does the same on the pillar in front of Bokuto.

“I can’t believe you manage to guide me into making edible food.”, Bokuto laughs, eating the really good pasta with fresh vegetables and meat.

“You’re a good student.”, Akaashi jokes and Bokuto barks another laugh.

The food is really good and Bokuto likes to eat when he’s frustrated, so they stay in silence while eating. But as soon as they finish the conversation is back, comfortable and warm as if it’s normal to them to be chatting in a rainy afternoon. Even when they get up to clean the dishes the conversation doesn’t find an end; and Bokuto learns so much about Akaashi.

He learns that Akaashi’s favorite food is nanohana no karashiae and that he prefers spring over all other seasons. Bokuto also leans that Akaashi and Mr. Kuroo aren’t really cousins, but they know each other for years and they’re basically family now; Akaashi also tell Bokuto about how lost he was in life when he met Mr. Kuroo and Mr. Kozume and that they had taken care of him when he needed the most. Akaashi tells him about how green is his favorite color and that he loves classical music. He talks about his travels and Bokuto can’t help but ask a lot of question about the countries where Akaashi had already been.

In the hours that they stay together, Bokuto learns so much about Akaashi while also telling Akaashi so much about himself that it feels like they had known each other for ages. When Bokuto lies down on his bed to sleep, he slips into memories that aren’t his, lured by Akaashi’s calm voice.

-

He opens his eyes and he’s on large balcony.

He’s calm, for once.

There’s no reason to rush, he knows that. Deep down he knows that.

It’s safe.

There’s a huge channel running beside the balcony, he can hear the noise of the water running down the currents.

A faint tinkle grabs his attention and he looks to his side.

There’s a woman there.

An old, old woman. She’s dressed nicely.

Is she from aristocracy?

Everything is calm. He feels at ease

He watches the old lady stirring the tea, one of her old hands holding the saucer while the other uses the small silver spoon to stir the milky liquid.

Her hands tremble a bit.

But this gives him some tranquility.

The old lady coughs a bit, he can’t hear her coughs over the sound of the water, but he sees her coughing.

He pats her knee, the fabric of her purple dress feeling cold under his touch.

She places her hand over his, but he can’t feel more than a feathery weight over it.

Everything is so peaceful. It almost feels wrong.

She coughs again and something wet touches his hand. 

Maybe it’s tea.

He looks at it. It’s red and stains his way too pale flesh.

It’s blood.

He looks at her and meets her eyes, green eyes glinting under the sun. 

She’s crying. But there’s no sadness on her tears.

Everything turns black. He feels like the world is spinning.

Spinning.

Spinning.

Until its stop.

It’s dark but not quite. There’s a full red-ish moon hovering over him.

There’s a tombstone in front of him and he falls on his knees on the fluffy soil.

He’s sad, but there’s also happiness. He’s confused.

It’s bittersweet.

He gets up after what it feels ages and pats the tombstone softly.

He says something, but his voice doesn’t come out, he just feel the sentence weighting in the air.

_See you later._

He turns his back to the tombstone.

And everything turns pitch black again.

-

The reform of the pond is delayed by one whole week because of the rain and this is making Bokuto go insane. He goes to the house in the woods everyday to check up on the canvas to make sure that the rain won’t flood all his and his team’s hard work. It’s so frustrating to him to not be able to work; he was planning on finishing the pond before Mr. Kuroo get back to Japan.

But the good part of having a week almost without work is that he now has time to talk with Akaashi, and since Mr. Kozume isn’t staying at home during the afternoons, Bokuto ends up staying to chat with Akaashi so the man won’t be alone.

They sit down by the balcony, eating random stuff that one of them had bought, and watching the heavy rain while chatting about nothing in particular. Bokuto is always taken by surprise because of how easy it is to talk with Akaashi; it always feels like they’ve been known each other for so long. Even their age difference isn’t a problem; Akaashi never seems to care about it and never treats Bokuto differently just because he’s young.

It becomes a habit for Bokuto to stop by the konbini on his way to the house in the woods to buy a couple onigiris for Akaashi, the seaweed is Akaashi’s favorite but Bokuto knows he likes the one with sesame seeds too so he buy both. Akaashi will be probably waiting for him with coffee and green tea, and probably some sweet treat, so they’ll sit on the balcony and chat for hours until the sun set and Bokuto needs to drive back home. Bokuto loves these afternoons where he can talk with Akaashi without anyone around them.  
It won’t be a misunderstanding to say that Bokuto is falling deep in love by Akaashi and his mysteries and, truth to be told, he isn’t paying much attention to the fact that maybe this isn’t the best idea. He’s just enjoying everything that is coming with this feelings and Akaashi seems to be okay with being around him, so as far as Bokuto can tell, everything is doing great.

Of course that when the week passes and Mr. Kuroo is back, bringing with him the sun, Bokuto needs to say goodbye to his peaceful afternoons with Akaashi to get back to work. Since most of the part of the pond is intact after the rainy week, is doesn’t take more than a few hours to give back the right shape to the pond and they can start to covering everything with the canvas.

Covering the pond with rocks is a bit more complicated, the shipment of stones comes by Tuesday morning and they start to work right away. Bokuto consider the rocks part his favorite, because it’s almost like playing with puzzle, building the walls and fitting the rocks in each other. He wants it to be pretty, even thought the fishes will be the only ones to actually see his patterns; Bokuto likes to think that they will enjoy a nice wall. Besides, he really wants to make Keiji’s house pretty for him.

It takes him a whole day to finish the stone walls and on the next day they place the bottom of the pond and star to make the cracks and caves so the fishes can hide when they want to. The lights are quickly installed following Mr. Kuroo’s plan. Mr. Kozume’s bridge, curve and bright red, takes place in the middle of the pond where the two big lagoons narrow on a slightly straight path; the pond infinite shape helps them to place the bridge without damaging the aesthetic. The water comes after and with that they start to make the waterfalls and install the fake currents to keep the oxygen running underwater. 

The plants take a bit more of their time, being living organism they need to be handled carefully and Bokuto doesn’t want to damage them, so he and his team take their time to put them on their new homes. Mr. Kuroo takes care of the surrounding, and Bokuto finds out that he is extremely good with landscaping. The last, and most excited, part is to bring back the fishes and both Bokuto and Mr. Kuroo are buzzing for it.

Unfortunately neither Akaashi nor Mr. Kozume is at home when they travel to Tanaka’s fish farm to get the fishes, both of them busy with work. So Bokuto and Mr. Kuroo stay at home waiting for Tanaka to bring the fishes back, sitting on the balcony and admiring the new pond.

“Mr. T, can I ask you something?”, Bokuto starts slowly, trying to build up courage to ask what he wants to ask.

“Yes, sure.”, Mr. Kuroo says, offering him the package of chips that he is eating.

“Do you think…. Hm… Do you think Akaashi would like to go out with me?”, Bokuto asks while staring at the chip on his hand, “Like on a date.”

Mr. Kuroo stays silent for what it seems to be a whole hour and Bokuto can feel the weight of Mr. Kuroo’s eyes directly over him. Bokuto starts to fidgets, nervous because of Mr. Kuroo’s lack of answer and risks to look at him by the corner of his eyes, blushing heavily when he sees a fond smile on Mr. Kuroo’s lips.

“You like him…”, Mr. Kuroo says softly and Bokuto feels himself blush even more.

“I-I do…”, Bokuto admits, because there’s no point on hiding.

Mr. Kuroo beams at him and Bokuto can’t help but hide his hot face on his own hands.

“No, don’t get shy.”, Mr. Kuroo laughs quietly, patting Bokuto’s shoulder. “I think you should try.”

“Really?”, Bokuto asks surprised, looking at Mr. Kuroo.

“Sure!”, Mr. Kuroo grins, “I think he would love to go out a bit.”

“Oh! I-I… ok!”, Bokuto blinks a few times, because he wasn’t ready for such a positive reaction.

Before they could talk more, Tanaka rings the bell and Mr. Kuroo walks to inside the house to open the gate. Bokuto uses the time to recompose himself, because he needs to look professional. 

Tanaka parks the small truck by the pond and the three of them start to work on settle the fishes, being careful while passing them from the buckets to the pond, giving them time enough to get used to the pond water before setting them free. Keiji is the last one and Bokuto can’t help but gets all excited because of it, he wants to make sure that the fish will enjoy his new house.

Bokuto helps Mr. Kuroo with Keiji’s bucket, the large fish plus the water weighting enough to both of them end up needing Tanaka’s help. Tanaka is a nice man, he talks loudly and his positive energy matches well with Bokuto’s and Mr. Kuroo’s. They chat a lot, mostly about fishes and Tanaka really loved the new pond; which makes Bokuto glow with pride.

They finally put Keiji directly into the water and the fish dashes around the around the pond without looking back. The three of them keep watching the huge black koi swimming around the whole extension of the new pond, dashing from place to place, passing in the middle of the plants and investigating the caves.

“It seems like he’s liking the new pond.”, Tanaka says, grinning.

“I think so, he’s big, the last pond probably was already too small for him to be comfortable.”, Mr. Kuroo says thoughtful. 

“I really hope he’s enjoying.”, Bokuto says, eyes on the white spot glinting under the sun as Keiji keep swimming.

“Well, now that the work is finally done, lets have a beer.”, Mr. Kuroo exclaims excited, walking to inside the house to grab the beers.

“I can’t, Chikara said I can’t drink anymore.”, Tanaka says while walking to the kitchen too, Bokuto walking with him.

“What? Why?”, Mr. Kuroo asks with a frown, taking a couple of beer from the refrigerator and a cartoon of juice.

“He claims that I drink way too much to be healthy.”, Tanaka complains, filling a glass with the grape juice.

“Do you?”, Bokuto asks, accepting the can that Mr. Kuroo hands him.

“Of course not, he’s overreacting!”, Tanaka huffs.

“Well, but don’t you have to drink anyways? You know, because of your religion?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, sitting down in one of the stools. 

“Yeah, but he says I drink even more out of the temple, so he said I can’t drink if it’s not an offering.”, , Tanaka sighs, drinking the juice.

“Your religion asks you to drink?”, Bokuto asks curious, because he had never heard about a religion where people need to drink alcohol. 

“In a way to praise the gods, yes.”, Tanaka nods.

“In polytheistic religions the offerings sometimes involve alcoholic beverages.”, Mr. Kuroo explains with a small smirk. “Monotheist religions that normally are stricter nowadays.”

“Oh. I wouldn’t know, I’m an atheist.”, Bokuto says with a smile before happily drinking his beer, missing Tanaka and Mr. Kuroo exchange of glances.

The door is open and Akaashi and Mr. Kozume step in, both of them in casual clothes, Mr. Kozume seeming utterly exhausted and Akaashi looking fresh from a shower.

“We’re home!”, Akaashi says with a soft smile and Mr. Kozume just grumbles a greeting before walking to Mr. Kuroo and hides himself on him.

“Welcome home. Tired, love?”, Mr. Kuroo asks while gently caressing Mr. Kozume’s bleached strands.

“Too much human interaction, I believe.”, Akaashi says in a calm tone, standing beside Bokuto.

“Well, I don’t want to third wheeling. So I’m going.”, Tanaka says, getting up.

“Want to me to walk you to your truck?”, Mr. Kuroo asks, but it’s pretty much obviously that he can’t move because of how wrapped around his waist Mr. Kozume is.

“No, relax. Kenma needs you.”, Tanaka smiles, saying goodbye before going.

“Well…”, Mr. Kuroo starts before picking up Mr. Kozume on his arms, “I’m sure you two will be ok alone.”, and he looks meaningly at Bokuto, “So I’m going to take care of my husband now.”

Bokuto can feel his cheek getting super warm because he knows exactly what Mr. Kuroo was meaning with that look and now he is all flustered without knowing what to do. Akaashi walks around the kitchen to grab some juice for himself as if he magically noticed that Bokuto needs a couple minutes to compose himself.

“So…”, Bokuto starts when he finally grab a hold of himself and Akaashi turns around to look at him curiously, “We finished the pond. Do you want to see?”

“Yes, sure!”, Akaashi smiles softly and Bokuto swears he should be used to that smiles now, but he can’t help but melt every time that small smile is directed at him.

The walk outside to see the pond, the automatic lights turned on now that the sun is gone and the blue sky is dark. They step on the grass – fruit of Mr. Kuroo’s awesome landscaping work - and walk towards the pond where the fishes, being already used to the place, swim around happily. Keiji is nowhere to be seen, but Bokuto supposed that the black koi is enjoying the tranquility of the deep caves that they had designed especially for him.

“It’s really beautiful.”, Akaashi smiles, crouching by the water to see the fishes. “I like the rocks on the walls.”

“Oh, seriously?”, Bokuto beams, proud of his work being good enough to catch Akaashi’s attention. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Yeah, it’s probably an awesome view from underwater.”, Akaashi says while getting up and walking towards the bridge. “Has Kenma seen it?”

“Not yet. He was out working.”, Bokuto answers, following Akaashi as he walks on the curve bridge. “Do you think he’ll going to like it?”

“I believe so.”, Akaashi nods, smiling as he supports his weight on the rail of the red bridge. “It’s a really nice view.”

Bokuto can’t keep himself from smilling like a fool, even when he bites his bottom lip the smile keeps showing. He’s happy that Akaashi truly liked the pond.

They stay in silence for a while, already used to be around each other without the need of a conversation, the silence always falling comfortable on their shoulders. But Bokuto knows he needs to grab this chance to ask Akaashi if he wants to go out with him. Mostly because now that the pond reform is over, he doesn’t have the employee/client bond with the house anymore, so he can ask Akaashi out without being unethical.

“Hm, Akaashi?”, Bokuto calls quietly and unsure.

“Yes, Koutaro?”, Akaashi turns his face to look at Bokuto, always curious.

“Do you like matsuris?”, Bokuto asks, trying to not let the nervousness show up on his voice.

“Matsuris?”, Akaashi asks thoughtful, looking back at the pond.”Yes, I do. But I haven’t been on one it has a good amount of years.”

“Do you want to go with me on one this weekend?”, Bokuto blurts out before his courage flies away, his cheeks reddening and all his body feeling unbearably hot.

Akaashi widens his eyes, turning around slowly until he’s facing Bokuto, the lights from the pond casting waves patterns on Akaashi’s flawless skin, his green eyes studying Bokuto’s anxious features slowly.

“I would love to.”, Akaashi says after a moment, giving to Bokuto the most beautiful smile in the whole world.

“Oh my- You do?!”, Bokuto’s eyes are big as plates and he barely knows what to do with himself when Akaashi nods, so he just awkwardly moves his hands in the air before taking a good breath to calm himself. “I-Well.. But, it’s like a date, alright? A…. Romantic one.”, he mutters, looking down at the red painted wooden slats on the floor of the bridge.

“Good.”, Akaashi says with a small smile.

They stay in awkward but comfortable silence for a while, Bokuto feeling weightless, as if he can fly away if he wants. He’s almost glowing and Akaashi laughs softly every time he sees Bokuto. They start to talk again after a few minutes of silence, once again falling into comfortable and normal conversation.

When Bokuto finally goes away, he promises that he’ll be back Saturday at the sunset to pick up Akaashi and they exchange phone numbers. Bokuto can’t help but explode in happiness when he’s out of the property, screaming alone inside his car as he’s some sort of insane. But he’s feeling insane, insanely happy, because Akaashi accepted to go out with him in two days.

Bokuto is so happy that his sleep is calm and peaceful, nightmares flying away from his excited mind.

-

Friday passes by Bokuto like a blur, he just barely remembers going out with Konoha to buy new clothes because Konoha refused to let him go in his old jeans and band t-shirt on a date with Akaashi. A few texts with Akaashi settled that they would both go in yukatas to the matsuri; so Bokuto buys a dark blue one.

Half an hour before the sunset, Bokuto is parking outside the house, waiting for Akaashi to appear. He’s nervous and anxious, wanting to make everything goes perfectly tonight so Akaashi will have a good time. When Akaashi finally appears dressed in a dark green yukata Bokuto’s heart jumps on his ribcage almost painfully.

“Hey, Akaashi!”, Bokuto greets happily, getting out of the car to open the other door to Akaashi.

“Good evening, Koutaro.”, Akaashi smiles, sitting on the passenger seat.

Bokuto goes to his sit again, turning on the car and driving to out of the property before looking at Akaashi with a huge smile, “How are you?”

“I’m fine and you?”, Akaashi keeps smiling gently, fastening the seatbelt and relaxing against the seat.

“I’m great! And excited! So I’m sorry if I start to talk without control.”, Bokuto says quickly, blushing lightly when Akaashi laughs.

“It’s okay, I like to hear you talking.”, Akaashi assures him and this makes Bokuto talks more.

The whole travel towards the place where the matsuri will happen takes a little more than two hours and Bokuto and Akaashi keep chatting about everything. To be completely honest, Akaashi is more listening than talking, but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, seeming completely endeared by the way Bokuto is describing his early high school student days. In the end, the time passes by them almost unnoticed and soon Bokuto is parking on the parking lot by the sea.

“Oh.”, Akaashi exclaims when he sees where they are.

“You said that you lived by the sea but now you can’t go often so I thought that maybe you would like to come..”, Bokuto says sheepishly.  
Akaashi’s eyes are soft when he pats Bokuto’s hand. “Thank you.”

Bokuto beams, a light blush on his cheeks, and gets out of the car while Akaashi is doing the same. They walk side by side to the street full of booths on both sides. There are a lot of people there, but not enough to be difficult to walk; maybe because it’s still too early.

They walk around for a while, playing silly games on the farther away booths before walking back to buy something to eat. Bokuto can’t help but laugh at Akaashi almost childish excitement when they find a booth that it’s selling squid in a stick. They buy food and beverages before walking towards the wooden benches on the boardwalk beside the sand.

“Are you having fun?”, Bokuto asks when they find a good place to sit down and eat.

“Yes!”, Akaashi smiles brightly and Bokuto feels his stomach doing flips. “It has a long time since the last time I went out… you know, without being to work.”

“You should go out more, Akaashi.”, Bokuto says after swallowing the takoyaki.

“Hm, I just don’t have interesting things to do outside the house.”, Akaashi says, eating his squid carefully to not get all dirty.

“So I’m interesting?”, Bokuto asking jokingly.

“Of course you are!”, Akaashi frowns lightly and Bokuto needs to laugh to hide his embarrassment.

The night starts to get darker and they decide to walk around a bit more before trying to find a spot to see the fireworks. So they go again to the booths to play, Bokuto winning a small onigiris plush for Akaashi on the target shooting booth and Akaashi wins a couple of golden fishes to Bokuto on the fishing booth. Bokuto feels like an idiot teenager, walking around with Akaashi, winning toys and eating sweets.

When it’s time for the fireworks, they walk to sand to find a good spot, the saline air hitting them stronger now that they’re near the sea and Bokuto can hear Akaashi’s deep breathes, as if he is nostalgic about the smell. The night is slightly cloudy, but nothing that will hind the fireworks so they sit down near the water to watch. It doesn’t take too long to the show start.

Bokuto can’t remember when was the last time that he enjoyed a fireworks show as much as he is enjoying this one, even though he’s barely looking at the sky. But the colors against Akaashi’s face, lighting his perfect features, is something way prettier and Bokuto can’t look away. Akaashi is smilling, his eyes sparkling under the colorful lights, soft sounds of excitement leaving his mouth. Bokuto had never been so in love.

The show lasts almost two hours and Bokuto doesn’t know how he managed to not reach for Akaashi and kiss him, but he’s proud of himself, Akaashi was enjoying the show so much that he would feel guilt if he had bothered that. He knows Akaashi is lacking of fun, so he puts his desires aside and behaves while watching the show.

“This was awesome!”, Akaashi says excited after the show ended, his voice still a bit too loud and Bokuto can’t help but laugh.

“It was!”, Bokuto agrees, matching easily Akaashi’s level of excitement.

They get up to leave, trying to clean the yukatas from the sand.

“So, do you want to eat something somewhere?”, Bokuto asks, looking at Akaashi again at the right time when the moon appears from behind a cloud.

The full moon hover over them, lighting up Akaashi’s pretty eyes in a way that Bokuto had never seen before. Akaashi freezes when he finally looks at Bokuto, his mouth hanging open mid-answer and his eyes widening slowly as he gasps. Bokuto can’t understand how Akaashi can be even more beautiful, but the moonlight is showing him that there’s depth on Akaashi’s beauty that Bokuto is yet to find out. 

He’s about to shorten the distance between them when a small tear falls down Akaashi’s cheek, sparkling lightly under the moonlight. Bokuto widens his eyes, cupping gently Akaashi’s cheek with his hand, his body suddenly feeling all warm.

“What happened?”, Bokuto asks softly, finally stepping closer and more tears roll down quietly from Akaashi’s eyes.

Akaashi keens against the touch, laying his head against Bokuto’s hand lightly, apparently no ready to tell what is happening. Bokuto makes the only thing that feels right in the moment, that is wrap Akaashi on his arms and hug him close. Akaashi holds firmly the fabric of Bokuto’s yukata, hiding his face on the crook of Bokuto’s neck and crying silently, his slender body trembling in Bokuto’s arms. 

Bokuto can’t help but think that Akaashi is holding on him as if he’s afraid of Bokuto leaving, so he whispers quietly against Akaashi’s hair, “Its ok. I’m here. I’m not leaving.”  
Akashi inhales sharply, squeezing the dark blue fabric between his fingers and getting even closer from Bokuto’s body while crying copiously.

“I’m sorry.”, Akaashi whispers after a while, apparently controlling himself enough to talk. “I-I wasn’t planning on break in front of you.”

“It’s ok, Akaashi, you don’t have nothing to be sorry for.”, Bokuto smiles brightly when Akaashi finally looks at him, cleaning Akaashi’s cheeks with gentle brushes of his fingers. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

Akaashi nods, sniffing softly before trying to clean up his own face with the back of his hand. “It’s just that… I haven’t been with someone since my last partner died a few years ago… And I thought I would never be happy again, but you…”, he bites his bottom lip, “You make me feel alive again.”

The look on Akaashi’s teary eyes is so soft, so vulnerable, that it’s almost impossible to Bokuto to keep looking. Bokuto sighs quietly, cupping Akaashi’s cheek with his hang again, caressing Akaashi’s cheekbone slowly with the pad of his thumb. He shortens the distance between them, kissing Akaashi’s forehead softly and feeling Akaashi almost melts against him.

“I’m glad I can make you at least a bit happy.”, Bokuto whispers and Akaashi sighs softly, hugging him again.

They stay hugged for a while, Akaashi hidden against Bokuto and Bokuto caressing softly Akaashi’s curly strands. The moon hovers over them, the moonlight lighting up their frames together almost as a spotlight. The sea is calm now, the waves had stopped a while ago and now the surface of the water is clean, reflective as a mirror, increasing the power of the moonlight.

Bokuto had never felt more at ease.

The trip back to the house in the woods is made almost entirely in silence, but as always it is a welcoming silence and not a bad one. Bokuto holds Akaashi’s hand through most part of the time, their fingers interlocked and Akaashi softly brushing his thumb over the back of Bokuto’s hand. They’re back at the house sooner than both of them had expected and Bokuto gets out of the car to open the door for Akaashi.

“Thank you for coming to the matsuri with me…”, Bokuto says with a warm smile.

“I’m the one that needs to thank you.”, Akaashi says sheepishly as they walk together to the door. “I’m sorry for all that.”

“You don’t have to be sorry.”, Bokuto says honestly, staying on the level ground as Akaashi steps on the first step of the stair. “I hope I can see you again, Akaashi.”

Akaashi gives him a warm and soft smile and nods, “I’m sure we will see each other again… And…”, Akaashi leans closer, kissing Bokuto’s cheek slowly before pulling away to whisper, “My name is Keiji.”

Before Bokuto can understand what had happened, Akaashi is already inside the house. Bokuto sighs, walking back to his car with his hand on his cheek while smilling like an idiot. He’s feeling so happy that he feels as if he’s too big for his skin.

While driving back to his house, Bokuto can’t stop thinking about the new informations of Akaashi. He’s slightly worried about Akaashi’s last partner, because he wants to make sure that Akaashi knows that he’ll respect his last partner’s memory. But also Bokuto wants to make sure that Akaashi keeps living and enjoying life, because he wants more than anything that Akaashi can be happy again.

It’s only when he’s on his bed, looking at the surprisingly big full moon, that the last information about Akaashi sinks in Bokuto’s mind.

“Wait, Keiji like the fish?”

-

He’s back in the woods, smashing leaves under his bare feet.

The moonlight hits some spots on the ground when it manages to pass through the leaves.

He’s unease, as if he knows he should be somewhere else. So he keeps walking.

He walks until he finds a road and he follows it.

The moon is high on the sky, big and round, lightning up the path as he walks through this.

He walks until he finds a big dark wooden gate.

He’s in the house in the woods.

The gate opens slowly and he enters, following the wooded path until the red house.

He enters the house and everything is pitch black.

He calls for someone but his voice doesn’t come out.

The sound of the water from the pond waterfalls fills his ears and he walks toward the backyard.

Everything is empty.

The black koi is swimming in circles in the pond.

White spot glinting under the moonlight almost hypnotizing him.

He steps into the pond and the fish swims around him.

The water is cold.

The moon shines over him.

The fish is gone.

He feels hands on his cheeks and he knows exactly who it is.

_You’re back._

-

Bokuto feels as if there’s something wrong with himself but he can’t find out what it is. He even goes to a doctor thinking that maybe he got the flu or something, but his healthy is perfect. He’s feeling down and always tired, as if just being alive was too much effort for him to make. So he spends the whole week on his bed, too weak to move and barely doing anything; he isn’t even eating, which is alarming.

He is somewhat good on the first three days, weak but still functional enough to help his mother on simple tasks around the house. But when Thursday comes, he is basically out. Bokuto can’t get up from his bed and the first two times he tries to eat, he ends up throwing up everything. There’s something wrong, it isn’t possible.

Konoha stops by his house on Thursday night after he’s back from a photoshoot. His face when he sees Bokuto tells enough that Bokuto understand that he’s probably looking like shit.

“Dude, what the hell happened with you?”, Konoha asks, sitting down on the bed and caressing Bokuto’s mussed hair to away from his face.

“I don’t know…. I’m feeling like death.”, Bokuto says, his voice weak and low.

“Well, you’re looking like death too.”, Konoha says, worry clouding his eyes. “Have you eaten something bad?”

“Maybe….”, Bokuto frowns lightly, holding Konoha’s hand softly, “Maybe it was something from the matsuri. I ate a lot of things there.”

“You can’t just eat a lot of shit in a street festival, Kou.”, Konoha sighs heavily, flicking his forehead gently.

“Does that means that Akaashi is bad too?”, Bokuto asks, now worried.

“You haven’t talk with him?”, Konoha frowns again and Bokuto blushes. “What?”

Bokuto starts to tell Konoha about the date and how thinks happened, about Akaashi crying and everything. It’s not like he wants to step away from Akaashi, but more like he doesn’t feel good enough to make Akaashi as happy as he deserves to be. Konoha, of course, calls him out on all this bullshit, giving Bokuto more reasons that he actually needs to convince him that he should call Akaashi as ask how he has been and explain that he hadn’t called yet because he is sick. 

Bokuto faintly thinks on how Konoha would be great as a cop, it’s almost impossible to not do what Konoha wants when he looks at you with that intense glare. Or maybe Konoha should open a dungeon. Probably the last one.

When Konoha goes away and Bokuto sees himself alone in his house, he builds up courage to call Akaashi. It takes a lot of rings until Akaashi finally pick up.

“Koutaro?”, Akaashi asks and Bokuto can hear the water running on the background. Akaashi is probably outside by the pond.

“Hey, yes. How are you?”, Bokuto asks softly, because he’s too weak to talk energetically.

“What happened to you?”, Akaashi cuts, and Bokuto can feel how worried he is by his voice.

“Oh, nothing. I mean, I’m kinda sick. I think I had eaten something bad at the matsuri and now my body is weak.”, Bokuto says, hoping that Akaashi won’t get too worried about him.

Akaashi stays quiet for a while and if it isn’t because of the water sound, Bokuto would think that he had turned off the phone.

“Maybe you should come here when you get better.”, Akaashi suggest softly. “I’m worried. I want to see you so I can see that you’re alright.”

Bokuto laughs weakly, “You’re really cute… I will try, ok? As soon as I get better, I’ll try to goo to see you.”

“Thanks.”, Akaashi says and Bokuto can hear his smile.

“Yeah… How was your week?”, he asks, wanting to keep the conversation because he likes to hear Akaashi’s voice.

Akaashi answers and they fall into an easy conversation, with Akaashi telling him about his not that rushed days and asking him a lot about what he is feeling and if he’s eating well. Bokuto can’t help but feel warm with all this worry for him, it’s good to know that Akaashi is interested. So they keep talking until the tiredness wins over Bokuto and he falls asleep still on the phone.

-

The next morning comes like magic, because Bokuto wakes up feeling full of energy, as if completely charged. He honestly doesn’t understand what and how it happened, but he isn’t the one to complain, not now when he can finally get back to his work with his father. He ends up helping until the night falls over the city and then he remembers about his promise of going to see Akaashi as soon as possible.

So he calls Akaashi again, but this time it is Mr. Kozume who answers and Bokuto explains the situation to him. Mr. Kozume’s answers as short and quick, but he says that Bokuto should go to the house in the woods tonight, because Akaashi seems drowning in worry. Since Bokuto doesn’t want to Akaashi to be worrying about nothing – because he’s truly fine now – he settles with Mr. Kozume that he’ll go to the house later that night.

-

The moon is almost full on the dark blue sky while Bokuto drives to the house in the woods, the completely clean night allowing the moonlight to light the way and Bokuto feels slightly uneasy. There’s something about the scenario that gives Bokuto a weird sensation, as if he’s about to do something important.

He presses the button on the intercom when he stops in front of the dark wooden gate and a few seconds later the gate starts to silently slide to the side, opening the way so Bokuto can follow the wooded path until the red house. He parks the pickup by the house, getting out of it and walking towards the door.

The door is ajar when Bokuto reaches it, so he opens and enters the house. He passes through the small hall and everything is dark, only the silhouette of the furniture being visible because of the moon outside. Mr. Kozume is waiting for him on the balcony and Bokuto walks towards him. The serious look on Mr. Kozume’s eyes say to him that maybe he should, just for now, be quiet. Something is happening and Bokuto can feel, the uneasy sensation growing bigger inside him.

Mr. Kozume leads him towards the pond and he sees the black koi swimming slowly in circles under the water, the white spot glinting lightly under the moonlight. The moon seems to be hovering directly over the pond and even with the lights turned off Bokuto can still see pretty much everything. Mr. Kozume touches his back softly, pushing him lightly towards the pond. He understands what Mr. Kozume wants and for some reason complies.

Bokuto enters on the cold water, his jeans soaking until his knees and starting to weight, but he doesn’t care. The black koi swims around him in a really slow pace, the small waves on the water hitting Bokuto’s shins every time the fish swirls his tail. 

Bokuto is about is about to lean and touch the fish when it happens. It’s fast but at the same time slow. The black koi turns into human and Akaashi gets out of the water, his dark green yukata sprawling all over the water as if it’s part of it. The water runs down slowly from his perfect curled black locks to his flawless pale skin and his eyes are sparkling with such a intensity that they hold Bokuto on the ground exactly where he is.

Bokuto opens his mouth to say something, anything, but the solitary syllable that falls of his mouth isn’t something that Bokuto completely understands. “La.”  
Akaashi smile, a candid and pure smile, and lifts his hands to cup Bokuto’s face. Akaashi’s touch is cold and humid, but Bokuto lays his face into the touch, closing his eyes. He feels the water moving around him when Akaashi steps closer and Bokuto can feel Akaashi’s breathe hitting his face.

The feathery kiss that Akaashi gives him sends sparkles all over Bokuto’s body, as if he’s waking up from a deep sleep. The electric currents keep running through his body and he can feel the moonlight burning his skin, as if he’s been exposed directly to the soon. And his mind goes blank before goes back at full force.

Images are launched on his mind in an amazing speed, things that were locked in the depths of his mind finally coming to the surface. 

He sees Akaashi, but it’s looking like the Akaashi he knows. The Akaashi in the images has long black hair that falls down by his back like a charcoal waterfall until it melts with the dark water of the sea, his black and green raiment contrasting perfectly with his extremely pale skin. But the eyes, the green eyes that glint like the water under the sunlight, are still the same.

The images – memories – show Bokuto a life that he doesn’t remember living, a life where he and Akaashi would meet in the middle of the night and stay together until the moon needs to go so the sun can rise. They had danced under the moonlight, they had kissed and they had make love. They loved each other more than anything, two forces of the nature that decided to stay together. Until something happened. But Bokuto doesn’t know what.

Bokuto opens his eyes, the dark warm brown from his irises giving place to a bright gold color and he sees Akaashi as if it’s the first time. And Akaashi is so beautiful.

“You’re crying…”, Bokuto says softly, lifting his hand so he can touch Akaashi’s face to clean up the tears and Akaashi giggles lightly. “You weren’t supposed to cry.”

“How can I not cry not that I’ve found you after five-hundred years?”, Akaashi asks softly, closing the gap between them and kissing Bokuto again.

Bokuto kiss back this time, the notions of familiarity hitting them and suddenly he knows exactly what and how to do. He knows that Akaashi likes deep and gentle kisses, and that he likes when Bokuto touches his cheek and his waist and it never felt so easy and right to kiss someone. They part ways and Akaashi hides his face against Bokuto’s shoulder, punching him lightly in the chest.

“I’ve been looking for you for so long.”, Akaashi whispers, his voice trembling softly as if he’s about to cry.

“I know. I’m sorry.”, Bokuto whispers back, hiding his face on Akaashi’s damp hair.

They stay together like that for a while, Bokuto holding Akaashi against himself as if his life depends on it because he misses Akaashi so much. He can’t believe it has so much time since the last time they’ve seen each other and as much as he doesn’t remember exactly how the last times were, he knows it has a long, long time since he was able to hold Akaashi on his arms like this.

“I’m so glad that I’ve found you again.”, Akaashi whispers ad if he’s telling a secret. 

“Me too, Keiji, me too.”, Bokuto whispers, caressing Akaashi’s back lightly over the fabric of the yukata. “But what are you doing here? Why are you stuck in a pond? Why aren’t you in the sea?”

Akaashi smiles softly, stepping back and away from Bokuto’s hold. “It has five-hundred years since the last time I found your reincarnation. In those five-hundred years I wandered around the Earth trying t find you again, but I was never on the right place at the right time. I was lonely and sad and miserable so I went back to China. I thought that maybe I would be able to find you at home.”, Akaashi sighs tiredly, “But I didn’t. Instead I met a man. A man that lived more than a thousand lives, someone that would understand me. This man walked side by side with a goddess.”

Akaashi gets out of the pond, wet steps against the grass. Golden eyes catch Bokuto’s attention on the darkness and the black furry cat walks slowly towards then. Akaashi smiles fondly.

“Bastet took me under her paws without giving me chance to refuse.”, Akaashi says softly and Bokuto frowns.

“Bastet?”, he asks confused, not because he doesn’t know the Egyptian Goddess, but because he can’t understand what Akaashi means.

“Bastet.”, Akaashi nods, passing in front of the cat and soon a big shadow hovers over Akaashi.

Bokuto blinks a few times, seeing Mr. Kuroo where the cat was supposed to be. A surprised exclamation of understanding falls off of Bokuto’s lips when he finally understands and Mr. Kuroo smiles kindly at him, his golden eyes sparkling in an unnatural way.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Tui.”, Mr. Kuroo says in a warm tone. He turns to Akaashi, lifting his hand to caress Akaashi’s cheek, “I’m so glad that you finally found him, La.”

“Thank you so much for being patient with me.”, Akaashi says, laying his face into the touch.

“We’re happy that you’re happy now, La.”, Mr. Kozume speaks; startling Bokuto that had completely forgot that he was there.

“What are you, Mr. K?”, Bokuto can’t help but asks, because Mr. Kozume must be another powerful creature to be married to a Goddess.

“Me?”, Mr. Kozume asks thoughtful before looking fondly at Mr. Kuroo, “I’m just a human that once a Goddess got fond of.”

Mr. Kuroo smiles with a huge amount of fondness at his husband and Bokuto feels almost as if he’s seeing something that he shouldn’t be. Mr. Kuroo caresses Akaashi’s hand backwards before kissing his forehead.

“You two need some time alone. We’ll be going now, see you by the morning.”, Mr. Kuroo says softly, walking by Akaashi towards Mr. Kozume. But he stops midway to look at Bokuto, “We’re really glad that you’re back.”, he says before resume on walking.

When they’re finally alone, Akaashi offers his hand to Bokuto to help him to get out of the pond before leading Bokuto through the house. They walk through one of the halls until the last door and Akaashi opens it, giving Bokuto some space to enter first before following him.

The bedroom has three glass walls and a skylight, a queen-sized bed with white sheets and a writing desk in one of the corners, but nothing more than that. The bedroom seems unused and Bokuto wonders when the last time that Akaashi slept here was. Akaashi opens the wall curtains and the bedroom is flooded with the moonlight.

Akaashi spins around to look at Bokuto, seeming uneasy because of something and Bokuto waits until he’s ready to talk.

“Sorry, it’s because it have been so long since the last time that I saw you that I don’t know what to do.”, Akaashi admits sheepishly and Bokuto smiles.

“Maybe you could start by telling me what happened.”, Bokuto says softly and Akaashi nods.

Bokuto sits down on the bed, watching Akaashi walking around in circles like a fish in a pond. Bokuto had never seen Akaashi so off before, but he’s patient because he knows how important this all is for Bokuto.

In the end, Akaashi sits down by Bokuto’s side in the bed.

“It all started because I was lonely.”, Akaashi says, his voice quiet, “Being the spirit of the sea is a lonely work, you know? The earth spirits are friendly around each other, but the water ones aren’t that fond of being friends. Not that I wanted friends… Not until I saw you.”

Akaashi looks at him and smiles before continuing.

“You’re lonely too, the spirit of the moon, alone and out of reach. And god you were beautiful.”, he sighs, closing his eyes, “Your hair was white like the snow and you glowed like the moonlight. I fell in love.”, Bokuto can see a faint blush on Akaashi’s cheek. “But I didn’t want to talk to you in the beginning, because I didn’t know how to be friendly… Besides you hadn’t seen me yet. I was safe on the depths of the sea.”

“Until one day you got too excited about the Earth and decided to look closer, and the moon got huge in the sky. You messed with me, with my equilibrium; my tides went crazy because you were too close.”, Akaashi opens his eyes, looking at Bokuto and smilling kindly, “Then you saw me… And for some reason that I still can’t understand, you liked me.”

Bokuto remembers this. He remembers seeing Akaashi’s pretty eyes and delicate features, remembers Akaashi deep frown when he asked Bokuto to stop messing up with his tides, with his work. And Bokuto remembers falling in love with that grumpy sea spirit, because he was the most beautiful creature that Bokuto had put his eyes on.

“We would met every night.”, Akaashi continues after a couple seconds, “You would come to the Earth so we could be together. We liked to dance and you liked to braid my hair. Everything was fine and we were happy.”, he takes a deep breath, his shoulders falling a bit and he frowns at the floor, “But I got greedy.”

Bokuto doesn’t remember anything beside the happy memories, so he pays full attention at Akaashi now.

“Being with you only when the moon was at the sky wasn’t enough for me… So I broke the rules. I messed up the tides and refused to work without you, because I was sad, being without you hurt me. You got worried and started to stay more with me, but the moon can’t get too close to the Earth or it’ll mess with the equilibrium of the nature. We caused disasters, your gravity influencing my waves and we destroyed everything.”

Akaashi looks so defeated now that Bokuto almost asks him to stop telling the story.

“So the Jade Emperor decided to step in and punish me.”, Akaashi bites down his bottom lip, chewing on it for a while before continuing, his eyes on the ground, “He took you from me, but our love was too pure for him to break the bond completely. So he cursed you. You would live like a human and die tragically in my hands, reincarnating for the rest of the time. And I would look for you, to bring you back, to live a life with you until the destiny took you from me again. This is our curse.”

They stay in silence for a while, Bokuto digesting all the informations he had just heard and Akaashi quiet by his side, as if waiting for Bokuto’s reaction. He frowns, the pieces slowly fitting together to show him a clear image.

“The dreams… I was seeing your memories.”, Bokuto whispers, eyes wide with the realization. When Akaashi looks confused at him, he explains, “I dreamed about a woman being cared away by a over flooded river… And a man falling from a cliff into the sea … Also a old woman drinking tea by a channel. It wasn’t me dreaming, I was seeing you memories…. I was seeing myself dying.”

Akaashi stares at him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. “I-I’m so sorry for that.”, Akaashi whispers, biting his lip again.

“It’s okay.”, Bokuto smiles lightly, “I was confused before because everything seemed too real… But now I understand.”

“Normally you don’t remember anything from your past lives… I always tell you silly things we had done together, mostly because you sometimes got a déjà vu feeling.”, Akaashi explains and Bokuto nods.

“When did you find out it was me?”, he asks, curious.

“At the matsuri.”, Akaashi says, blushing a bit, “When the moonlight hovered over you something clicked inside me and I understood that it was you, right in front of me, five-hundred years after the last time.”

“That’s why you cried.”, Bokuto says and Akaashi nods. “Why you couldn’t find me for so long?

“I think it was because… Because I broke the rules last time.”, Akaashi says with a quiet voice, “You were drowning and I saved you so after you died in that day on the balcony by the channel, I’ve never been able to find you again.”

Bokuto nods and they fall into silence again. Eventually Bokuto falls back on the bed and pulls Akaashi closer, giving him space so Akaashi can snuggle against him. There are a lot of things that he wants to ask to Akaashi, but he thinks that everything can wait now. He just wants to stay with Akaashi exactly how they are now.

“Koutaro.”, Akaashi calls when Bokuto was already dozing off, “I don’t think it’s fair that I keep dragging you into this every time I found you. And it never ends well for you. So if you ask me, I’ll erase everything from your mind and put you back on your life. And then I’ll never search for you again.”

Bokuto wants to answer, but he’s too tired to do it right now, all his nights without sleep accumulating over him and Akaashi is so comfortable that Bokuto really doesn’t have enough strength to fight the sleep. He ends up dozing off completely before he can answer properly.

-

When Bokuto wakes up in the next morning, Akaashi isn’t with him on the bed. Instead he finds a white yukata with a black circle in the back by his side on the mattress. He smiles softly, changing into the yukata before walking out of the bedroom to find Akaashi. When he steps into the kitchen, he finds Mr. Kuroo making breakfast.

“Good morning, Mr. T.”, Bokuto grins and Mr. Kuroo smiles softly at him.

“Good morning, Koutaro. I think that now you can call me Tetsurou.”, Mr. Kuroo says, placing a mug in front of Bokuto and filling it with hot coffee. “How was last night? Keiji seemed worried.”

“Oh… Ok.”, Bokuto nods shyly, “I don’t know. It’s a lot of information to handle. I don’t know what to do now.”

“Well, you can always stay with us.”, Mr. Kuroo says in a soft tone.

“Would you allow me to stay in your temple?”, Bokuto asks, curious.

“I’m the Goddess of Love, Koutaro. How could I be against a love so pure like yours?”, Mr. Kuroo smiles warmly and Bokuto blushes. “Keiji is in the pond.”, He says before passing by Bokuto, walking back to one of the halls, “You’re welcomed on my temple, Koutaro, if you decides to stay.”

When Bokuto turns to answers, the goddess isn’t there anymore; the last thing he sees is a long dark hair whipping around like a long cat tail.

Bokuto smiles to himself, drinking the coffee almost in one go before walking outside towards the pond. Akaashi is there, in fact, sitting on the red bridge and dressed with a black yukata with a large white circle on his back. Bokuto walks towards the bridge, sitting beside Akaashi without saying a word. They stay like that for a while until Bokuto breaks the silence.

“Don’t you get tired of always looking for me?”, Bokuto asks in a soft tone.

“I love you more than everything, Tui… I’ll look for you until the end of the time.”, Akaashi answer with a kind smile.

“Good.”, Bokuto answers, placing his hand over Akaashi’s, “Because I’ll be waiting for you in every time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I love this story so much. It was really hard to write and everything, it took me a long time and it's a really long work, but I love everything about this story and Im very proud of it.  
> I hope everyone likes it!  
> Also, there will be two other fics on this universe, so wait for it!  
> If you want to talk with me, please feel free to call me on [tumblr](http://awishmaster.tumblr.com)!!!  
> Let me know on the comments what you thought about it!


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